Carlsbad Caverns & a Change of Plans...
Leaving Big Bend, we pulled in at Study Butte just outside the national park to decide which route to take up to Carlsbad, our next destination and figure out what to do about the water situation. Over breakfast we made the decision to find an RV park with basic amenities and laundry facilities to see us through till the flight home.
The decision was made to take a longer route through Big Bend State Park (not to be confused with the National Park previously). The road took us back past Terlingua and along the Rio Grande for a couple of hours along some stunning cliff side roads in the park. The road continued toward Presidio through more desert plains and small abandoned towns with populations less than 100. We made it to Presidio and the road turned north toward Marfa just before it turned into the Mexican border crossing.
Northward bound and starting to climb upward, we eventually made it to the junction town of Marfa where we stopped for a leg stretch around the county court house (pictured). We popped into the Hotel Paisano for a look around, and then into it's shops mainly for lip salve after the desert air had dried and burned our lips considerably. We then pushed on further north as the roads became incredibly long and straight, tumbleweeds and all.
Stopping for lunch near the blue origin space launch facility we could see El Capitan and the Guadeloupe mountains ahead of us. Rising up the sudden mountain pass we pulled off into the Guadeloupe Mountains national park visitor centre and took a brief hike to the Butterfield Overland Mail station ruins just further up the Highway.
Then it was onward to the RV park we’d booked in White’s City (Named after Jim White, the cowboy who first explored the nearby caverns). Dinner, laundry, board games and some serious discussions about the next week as our (clean) socks dried over head wedged into the cupboards. The winter storm was heading over and our original route and reservations for Santa Fe, Santa Rosa, Amarillo etc were in jeopardy. The rental van’s Webasto gasoline heater can only operate below 5,000ft and Santa Fe is over 7,000ft and was going to reach -10°C overnight! We didn’t want to risk that and so a couple of options were discussed that we would take into consideration the next day.
The next morning we did the usual van chores and finally got the water topped up and grey drained. Then we headed up the road to the Carlsbad Caverns National park. We expected this would only take a couple of hours but it turned out to be 4-5 hours of exploring this incredible cavern. Including our first lunch at 750ft below the surface! I can’t post all the photos taken but hopefully you get the idea. The best thing I can suggest is to go see for yourself!
After the caverns we returned to the van for an hour long planning sessions to replan the rest of the week based on the night before’s discussions. The decision was made that I would drive us two hours down to El Paso so we could go food shopping and do white sands national park the next day without too much driving.
We headed back south, then west toward El Paso. As we crested the Franklin mountains into west El Paso, the Texas sunset bathed the sprawling city in deep red light. We continued down to a very basic RV park on a ranch on the northern outskirts. It was somewhere to sleep, but not much else to say about it. Although the host was very friendly and welcoming, gave us two free beers by the fire in the pavilion and had a good chat for an hour after dinner before heading back for an early night.
The plan now was to keep our initial plan of white sands, then Chef Üdø’s campsite the next day (more on that next time). Then we would head back east in Texas and go to San Antonio, Corpus Cristi and Houston. However after some discussion with Ellen’s Sister and a look at the forecast with this storm rolling in, we changed the plan again. The next day would stay the same, but we decided we would instead head further west... to Arizona…
