Texas to New Mexico

After an amazing few nights in Big Bend National Park, it was time for us to start moving up towards New Mexico. We had our first ‘tent’ incident, where we rushed to get out of camp that morning and forgot to clamp the tent buckles down. We wondered why we were getting some funny looks coming out of the valley. It was only when we had pulled over to take a photo of the truck infront of the National Park sign, that we noticed our error. Thankfully we hadn’t made it onto the highway at that point for it to be a problem, we just had a few bugs to wipe off the front of the tent that night!

Our next destination was going to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Neither of us had heard of it but we were on a mission to see as many of the National Parks as we could – mainly because our taster of them had shown us the sheer vastness of America’s wildlife and landscapes. They each have a visitor centre with park rangers who are well versed in where to hike, what to see and do etc as well as a system whereby you can collect stamps for your ‘National Park’ passport. We picked one up earlier on in the trip and whilst we won’t get anywhere close to visiting all of them on this adventure, we hope to return to complete our ‘passport’ in the future.

Worth noting that on our way here, on the way to Guadalupe, we came across a Prada store in the desert. The store doesn’t open at all and to be honest, we aren’t quite sure why the hell it’s there other than as an art installation – either way, we posed for our photos and off we went.

Our campsite for Guadalupe was essentially just a car park, probably one of the most basic we’ve stayed in but it was a nights rest and clean toilets ready for us to get up for our hike in the morning. I was treated to instant noodles a la James and an early night with Netflix. Our hike the next morning was the Devils Halls trail and with somewhat achey legs from the past few days in Big Bend, we were a little dubious on setting out for a big one. Devils Hall was perfect for us. Around 8k which allowed us time to drive to the next spot that evening. It was on the most part, a washed out river bed which made it more of a scramble over lots of rocks however one really cool part meant we really had to hold on to the edges to avoid quite a steep drop below (we are both still alive!) We even bumped into a Canadian woman we had met in Big Bend, doing the same route up to New Mexico which was nice to someone ‘familiar’ when you spend everyday socialising with strangers.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park was next on the list. Something a little different here, in that the main sight is inside a huge cave system. We decided upon hiking down into the cavern instead of taking the elevator. It was really cool to see the light get less and less (and a little spooky). Once down in the cavern, there were so many ‘rooms’ full of stalactites and stalagmite formations that were super pretty, lit up with the help of some good old fashioned electricity, to make it more of a tourist attraction. The elevator has made it a lot more accessible to everyone which is great, but once we were down there, it did begin to feel really crowded and commercialised with even a food and drink stand. Nevertheless, we returned later that evening to see the main spectacle here….the bats! At sunset every night, they come out in the hundreds of thousands and dance across the New Mexican night sky. Unlike Austin (for those who have read my previous blogs), the bats actually showed up this time and it was so incredible to see. We actually didn’t realise that we would have been able to see them across our campsite too but it was pretty spectacular to see them leave out of the mouth of the cavern. Highly recommend visiting here for a day to explore!

On our way to the next stop, we were able to get some much needed admin done. We had shipped over my Global knives to make camp cooking a little easier however after a few years of use, they were pretty blunt. We happened to find a store that would sharpen for us in 10 minutes so we took advantage of that as well as going to purchase a mattress topper from Target. We aren’t 20 anymore and sleeping on an inch of mattress was just killing our backs so this was a necessity more than a luxury. The same town we stopped in for admin, also is known for various alleged UFO encounters over the years, and for those space fans…you will know it as Roswell. The whole town is bizarre, with alien statues all over the place, including a McDonalds shaped like a spaceship. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity of popping in to the UFO museum for $5 and reading up on some of these encounters. Not totally convinced on the truth of these stories, but pretty fun to go and experience.

Next up, was White Sands National Park, a beautiful 13 mile scenic drive through sand dunes where you can take a sled and slide down the multiple dunes. We were unfortunately without a sled but enjoyed watching different families having a great time including a 30 something woman with her Mum which was adorable to see. You can hike here although have to be super careful as it’s really easy to lose your bearings when everything looks the same in the sand.

Our final stop in New Mexico, was Albuquerque. Neither of us knew much about this city apart from it being where Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad is set. Our luck carries on however, as we happened to be in town for the biggest hot air balloon festival in the entire world. James has experienced Bristol’s version but I don’t think we were quite prepared for how big this event really is. Tickets were $30 each and you had a choice of going to a dawn show or sunset. We opted for dawn as apparently the balloons don’t actually take off in the evening. This did mean having to wake up at 3:30am however which is even a little too early for me (Laura). We made our way to the site and were amazed by the amount of people queuing up to get into the Albuquerque International Balloon fiesta. We later found out that they expect 2 million visitors across the week and there are around 650 balloons that go up each morning. Standing amongst all the pilots and watching them launch is something that will stay with us for a long time. We loved everything about the show (even the cold, the early alarm clock, and the delayed start due to weather conditions). To top it all off, we ended up in iHop (International House of Pancakes) for breakfast, to make it truly an American Sunday.

Leave a Comment