Fort Union, NM

On our way home from climbing The Incline, Eric and I decided to stop at Fort Union, NM on a whim.  We were exhausted and every muscle from our wastes down were on fire, and it all sort of sucked a lot more than it should have because we had a really long day of driving ahead of us to back get home.  It would have been really easy to not stop at this random place that we hadn't even planned on stopping at in the first place and just continue on down the interstate in all of our miserable glory.  

But we didn't.  

And I am so glad didn't.

Eric got me and Isabelle a National Park passport book a couple of months ago and we have been trying to collect stamps ever since.  We did not get a stamp when we were in San Antonio and I'm really irritated about that.  So to be completely honest with you all, we probably would never have stopped at Fort Union if it wasn't for our passport books telling us that there was a stamp waiting for us there, and if not for us being irritated that we didn't get a stamp in San Antonio when it was within our grasp.

Fort Union is in northern New Mexico and ended up being so much more than we expected!  It was the largest U.S military installation on the Southwest frontier in the 1800's, and the foundations of the stone buildings and some of the adobe walls are still visible.  It was really neat seeing an old time military compound and seeing how it all starts - I could imagine that this was how Fort Bliss may have started and grown into what it is now.  Everything was all self-guided so after we were sure to get our passports stamped, Eric and I wandered around the compound, took pictures, and then reluctantly headed back to the car to continue our long drive home.

Fort Union was so much more than we expected!  And was totally worth the extra hour we added to our already long day to get home!  Sometimes, the best little adventures lie within a whim.