New Mexico

When we were originally on this trip, but before we had big car problems back in Ranger TX, we were planning a day in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, before we would head up to Colorado. Obviously those plans got ruined but now with looking at the huge cold front getting ready to move into Colorado and most of the country it was time to move south. Since most of our plans are cast in Jell-O, and the farther south we went the better, we decided to head that direction.

We left the Air Force Academy on Monday the 5th of Dec., and headed straight down the map. The cold front was already starting to blow in and made for some wiggly driving as the wind made the RV hard to keep in a straight line. It was a long day but we made it to the Walmart in Carlsbad about 9pm and went to bed.

We woke up early as I had a plan for the afternoon in mind, but it would require leaving the caverns by lunchtime to be able to fit them in, but I didn't want to just rush through the caverns either. We got to the caverns just as they were opening and were some of the first down the trail.

We walked the Natural Entrance to the caverns and also did the Big Room loop. We took lots of pictures but most are of the same things you can see doing an internet search, and those professionally done ones put ours to shame, so here are just a few of our favorites.

The hike was long, but made even more difficult for mom with her fear of heights and claustrophobia, but she did a great job. After we finished the trails it was time for the elevator ride back up to the visitor center. Once the doors opened for us to go in the Ranger at the bottom said it was a 75 story elevator ride and mom just about bolted back out of the elevator. I caught her and the Ranger realizing her fear assured her it was only for 58 seconds. She did the ride up with her eyes closed while the kids and I marveled at the rock walls that you could see out of the elevator windows as we were going up. Once at the top, mom stumbled out of the elevator and needed to find a place to sit down and preferably outside in some fresh air. We all thought it funny how she had descended on foot close to 800 feet, walked up and down hills for over two and a half miles, legs were sore, used her inhaler, and it was the elevator ride back out that got her. She said that she was almost ready to hike the way back up the trail rather than ride that elevator.

We left Carlsbad Caverns after having lunch in the parking lot, and we headed toward White Sands National Monument. I told them that White Sands was a missile test range, which it is, but left out the other parts. We got there with almost two hours left before it closed. I went to the gift shop and was purchasing the saucer sleds when the rest of them came out of the restrooms and found me. It was then that my kids eyes lit up as they figured out what we were about to do.

We drove into the park on the white gypsum that had been compacted so hard to make roads that even a 22k pound RV pulling a vehicle could safely drive on it. We found a big parking area that was surrounded by large gypsum sand dunes and started hiking to the tops. The kids and I took turns sliding down the hills and having a great time.

 

Only took a little wind to get buried.... Just kidding. View looking back over the dunes toward the parking area.

It was after dark when we left and we even got to see a great sunset. We drove to Deming NM. and stayed at another Walmart. We had tracked about a cup full of sand all over the RV as evidenced by the pile we swept up. We were planning to head to Tucson, but I made a few phone calls and found an RV park in Sierra Vista AZ. that had a cancellation for the next week so off we went.

Sunset over the White Sands.