Welcome back for Part 2 of our journey across the country!  Yesterday I shared some of the fun we discovered in St. Louis, Missouri, and along the path of Route 66, and today y’all get some behind-the-scenes beauty of a working cattle ranch in New Mexico!  Yes, we actually got to spend the night at a cow camp!  I have to say, I think this may have been my favorite stop along our journey to the west coast.  I mean, you can’t exactly spend the night at a Motel 8 and wake up to see a herd of cows walking by your window!  JX Ranch is definitely a one-of-a-kind place to stay, and of course we discovered it on Airbnb.com (you can see the listing right here).   Tom and Mimi were fantastic hosts, and we enjoyed getting to talk to them and hear a little bit of their story.  New Mexico was nothing like I imagined, it has a unique beauty that I had never experienced before.  There is desert, there are mountains, and miles and miles of land as far as the eye can see.  I was surprised that there was a dusting of snow covering the ground here, as I had always pictured the desert to be hot, even during the winter months.  Not true!  We arrived at the ranch late at night after a full day of traveling, so it was incredible to wake up the next morning and see all this beauty surrounding us!  And the cattle!  Of course I reached for my camera as soon as I saw them marching by, I don’t think they knew what to make of me!  Haha!  We spent the early morning hours exploring the beautiful terrain and playing fetch with the friendly ranch dogs, soaking in the stunning wonder of the snowy mountains in the distance.  It was hard to leave JX Ranch, but we had another full day of driving ahead of us.  This is one place we definitely want to return to again though, and if you’re ever in Tucumcari, NM, you MUST do yourself a favor and stay with Tom and Mimi!

The dirt road that winds through the ranch!

We loved playing with this pup!

The sun setting on the red rocks of New Mexico