Our first stop today was a waypoint right next to the USA-Mexico border wall (railroad tracks – road – border wall – Rio Grande river – City of Juarez, MX). We actually got to touch the border wall (and no, there wasn’t anyone crossing illegally where we were, unlike the images we see on TV). … Continue reading Backtrack to El Paso TX – border fence!
Hiking in the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument
Today we hiked the “Dripping Springs Natural Area” trail. The trailhead was a convenient 30-minute drive from our campsite. The trail itself was 1 ½ miles in length, 3 miles return. The pleasant surprise with it is that some sections were still snow covered from this past weekend’s storm. The views were spectacular, and at… Continue reading Hiking in the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument
journey to Las Cruces NM
Not only are there no services, but there are also nearly no inhabitants. Most structures along the route (and there aren’t many) appear to have been abandoned quite some time ago. It was only about 20 miles out from El Paso, that we began to see some residential unit density and roadside mailboxes. In the… Continue reading journey to Las Cruces NM
summary of our first BLM experience
BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management and is part of the US Government. It sets aside certain areas for public use, and no cost to the users. Such camping involves no hookups (see previous post on dry camping). In this case, the area was set up as a campground, and had designated areas for… Continue reading summary of our first BLM experience
dry camping summary
We did it, we camped 4 nights in an entirely self-sufficient manner. In practice, this means we managed with the 40 gallons of fresh water in our tank, propane for cooktop and oven, water heater (normally we heat it electrically), and space heating (the blower motor runs off the 12V batteries). No sewer hookup, so… Continue reading dry camping summary
snow day…
We woke up to snow visibly falling in the El Capitan area of the Guadalupe mountains. On and off, we had a number of snow squalls throughout the morning. In the afternoon, we drive north to the city of Carlsbad, the closest place to buy groceries and top up our fuel tank for tomorrow’s travels,… Continue reading snow day…
Guadalupe Mountains NP
A fun fact about Guadalupe mountains is that it’s the same mountain chain as Carlsbad Caverns. Guadalupe is in Texas, whereas Carlsbad is in New Mexico. The mountain itself is very rugged, so there is not really a scenic drive inside the park, it’s around it. Therefore, the number of easy trails is somewhat limited. … Continue reading Guadalupe Mountains NP
Carlsbad caverns
We have seen many caverns before, including Mammoth Cave National Park, but this one was by far the most impressive. To begin the tour, we took an elevator down to 750 ft below the surface. Then we begin the self-guided tour which is 1 ½ miles in length. Younger ones can walk in from the… Continue reading Carlsbad caverns
Travel from Roswell NM to Carlsbad NM
Today was a short drive almost due south on US-285 from Roswell NM to Carlsbad NM. The highlight from today is that our destination was the Sunset Reef Campground, which is a First Come First Serve campground. We arrived shortly after 1PM, and were ecstatic that we could pull directly into one of the sites,… Continue reading Travel from Roswell NM to Carlsbad NM
Roswell museum
Today, we visited the Roswell Museum. It is a small museum with no high value artwork, but there were two exhibits of local interest that we felt were worth the visit. First was” Robert H Goddard: Dreamer, Tinkerer, Pioneer” which included a reproduction of his workshop, and showcased his work on rockets, as well as… Continue reading Roswell museum