We unexpectedly stayed a couple of nights in the Anton Chico Rest Area, west of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, when the front passenger-side brake got stuck on the way from the Balloon Fiesta.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-10-14
• Check out: 2023-10-16
• 2 nights

Weather:

• Drizzle, partly cloudy
• High temps ranging between 73-75°F, lows around 39°F
• Negligible wind, gusts up to 20 MPH

Noise:

• Loud freeway noise
• No train noise
• Loud trucks arriving, departing, idling

Site:

• Pull through, asphalt
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Very unlevel side-to-side and front-to-back, but air leveling coped well
• Rest area truck parking about 70 feet long by about 15 feet wide
• Some trash

Utilities:

• None
• We used our generator and solar each day

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 14-27 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
• Verizon: 16-26 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• AT&T: 35-104 Mbps down, 9 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage bins
• Rest area

An interactive map:

Our coach in the rest area truck parking:

We used air leveling, since the site was very unlevel, and put out only the bedroom slides, so we could sleep:

This picture shows our coach level, compared to the slope of the other vehicles:

Several motorhomes, probably mostly also on their way from the Fiesta:

Trucks and coaches:

There was a taco truck, though it was closing when we explored the rest area on the first evening, and was closed the next day (Sunday):

Bathrooms:

We felt bad for taking one of the truck parking spaces, though we wouldn’t have been here by choice. Unlike this rude car parked in the truck parking; there’s plenty of car parking spaces, plus they’d be more quiet:

This was our first time sleeping in a rest area. Not something we’d want to repeat any time soon, though we actually slept surprisingly well. Perhaps still catching up from the early starts during the Fiesta.