First thing in the morning and I’m packing up when a Ranger stops by. I took a surreptitious photo while he was writing down my driver’s license info. They aren’t kidding around out here. He gave me a warning and I told him I was heading right then to get my pass. I did. Gotta carry tweezers when walking in the desert lest prickers get you. This one was stuck in Pugsly, and when I went to pull it –…
We’ve arrived in Texas! My friend in Cloudcroft, NM suggested I check out the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It’s not far from Carlsbad, so I made my way there for a camp-over. I wish I’d stayed to hike in those rugged mountains, because they really are impressive. I arrived there on a lovely and temperate Christmas eve but was too tired to explore. The “campground” was simply a large parking lot, with a lower section for tent camping and nice…
Carlsbad Caverns I’m not a big fan of the over-developed National Parks tourist attractions, so while I wanted to see caverns, I also didn’t want a circus like is at the Grand Canyon South Rim, for example. When I pulled into the Carlsbad parking lot, I immediately wanted to turn around and leave. It was Christmas Eve day and I mistakenly assumed most folks would be happily baking Christmas pecan pie for the Eve dinner. I was horribly mistaken. The…
I’m typing on my iPad with little connectivity at Rio Grande Visitor’s Center so this will be a simple update. I have a whole bunch written up and a lot of pics from my past week or so. Guadeloupe Mountains National Park, Marfa, TX on Christmas Day, and the mighty Big Bend National Park! It’s really windy here today, and looks like a cold front is headed this way. Hopefully not too bad – I’ve still got to drive to…
Going to visit the VLA has long been on my list. I left the rainy Datil Well Campground around 9:30am thinking I should get to town to check the weather report since I had no connectivity out there. I went to the one gas station in Datil and talked with the fellow working. He said that snow was forecast, so I decided to skedaddle south and east. No checking the dice for this one – I wanted away from this…
December 21, 2016 Datil Well Campground, NM When I set up yesterday, it was lovely. I took Argos for a little walk and discovered that we had the campground all to ourselves. It started raining last night and didn’t stop. I wrote this morning. It’s raining. I’m not good at sitting and just “doing nothing” so perhaps this is good for me. I do wish I had connectivity though so that I could check the forecast and find out how…