January 1, 2017 – Don’t Need to Put a Border Wall Here

Big Bend is another National Park that you don’t hear much about. It’s out of the way and not visited by many, but is should be.  Seeing that beautiful places like this have been recognized and protected by our government, gives me some degree of respect for our leaders, at least the past leaders. The south border of the park is a canyon carved by the Rio Grande River.

Finally, a warm hike!

I'm standing on the US side, those cliffs are in Mexico.

The south side of the river is Mexico with a completely vertical canyon wall about 6 times higher than what Trump wants to build. Hope they don’t put a wall on our side of the river so we can’t enjoy this natural wonder anymore.

The purple prickly pear added bright pops of color in the desert landscape.

December 31, 2016 – Guadalupe, Marfa and Prada

Our last day of 2016 was a busy one. We happily said adios to our White’s City parking spot and planned a morning hike at Guadalupe National Park just south of Carlsbad, but a frigid 19 degrees kept us only to an interpretive trail around the visitor center. How far south are we going to have to go to get warm? We hit the road for south Texas and the Mexico border.

I made sure our route took us through Marfa, Texas. Laine and I visited here last year when we were driving across country. Marfa was put on the map for the mysterious lights that flash in the night sky. They have a viewing building for this, but I haven’t made it there at night to see what the hub-bub is about. The town is now an artist enclave with a few galleries and interesting restaurants. 

A few miles outside of town is an art installation depicting a Prada storefront in the middle of nowhere. It’s a false storefront, you can’t go in and shop, strictly for window shopping. The fence behind the “store” is covered with locks like the love locks on the bridge over the Seine in Paris.

We ended the day and the year at an RV park just outside Big Bend National Park.

December 30, 2016 – Caverns and Crappy Camping

At the recommendation of a fellow RVer we booked a night at our first KOA campground ever about 20 miles outside Carlsbad, New Mexico. This place was nice and tidy with roomy spots, but not much in the way of personality. The staff was nice and it was the first RV park we’ve stayed in that offered a menu. They BBQed daily and you could put in an order and they would deliver to your door. Not knowing this in advance, I had already prepped dinner for that night so we didn’t partake.

Our plan for the next day was to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a 45 minute drive each way from this remote campground. Research lead me to an RV park in White’s City at the turn off to the National Park and only 10 minutes from the park.  Reviews were horrible, but it would give us more time at the caverns. We decided to depart the KOA for something closer. The location was ideal, the “park,”

not so much. Thank God for a self-contained trailer. Most of our neighbors looked to be permanent squatters that permanently kept most of their belongings outside their rig. The bathhouse doors were swinging from broken hinges. The check-in office/convenience store/collection of everything they had ever owned building was very unique.

We were so glad we chose to check out Carlsbad Caverns. I don’t think I’ve read anything that prepared me for just how magnificent this caverns are. I had no idea what was in store for us. Everyone should see this national park. I’m claustrophobic so have had some difficulty with cave visits in the past and warned Denis I might have to bail if the trails get tight, but the only tight quarters was the elevator down to the caverns. There are other trails that require scrambling through tight spaces if you like that sort of thing, but we opted for the elevator down to the Big Room. The trail through this is over a mile. The place is massive. There is even a concession stand and restrooms down here. The job they’ve done strategically lighting the walkway and formations is ideal. Can’t say enough about this place, just spectacular and my photos don’t do it justice.