SW Trip 2014 - Deming, New Mexico

Deming, New Mexico – Rockhound State Park
April 23 - 24

Rockhound State Park is located a few miles east of the town of Deming. This is a beautiful park with awesome campsites. Our campsite was very large with nice landscaping of cactus and rocks. The park is surrounded by the Florida Mountains. The weather was cool and sunny, but the wind was kicking up to 35mph. The first night the trailer was rocking with the wind howling most of the night. By the next morning the wind died down and we went on a short hike on some trails around the park. This park is known for semi-precious stones and rocks. The main activity here is to look for these rocks. Later in the day, we were trying to determine where we could go hiking in the area where it might be more challenging. There was also no mountain biking within 30 miles, so Kurt and I decided to do a hike in Spring Canyon, which is on the south side of Rockhound Park. This was a nice hike back in a canyon to Lovers Leap. It was steep with a small elevation gain, and we enjoyed the scenery and the exercise.

After getting back to camp, we had discovered that a wind storm was heading our way and may affect our travel in 2 days to our next location. We were told that if the winds go over 50 mph, they could shut down I-10, which could be a problem for us. So we all decided to leave the next day and arrive in Tucson a day earlier.

That evening, the wind had died down and we were able to have a nice campfire. We sat up until late looking at the amazing stars and searching for meteors. We saw a couple of meteors, but it was getting really late and we wanted to get an earlier start on the road in the morning.

We were ready to head to Tucson and see what that area has to offer.

SW Trip 2014 - Alamogordo, NM - Oliver Lee S.P.

Alamogordo, New Mexico – Oliver Lee State Park

April 20 – 22
 

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Our drive from Carlsbad to Alamogordo was quite nice, especially when we drove over the Sacramento Mountains, through the Lincoln National Forest. The road winds through a beautiful forested river valley, ultimately crossing through the mountain town of Cloudcroft. Then the road began going downward towards the foothills. There was an overlook area where we pulled off and took some amazing pictures looking down to the Tularosa Valley. From that vantage point, we could clearly see the White Sands dune fields.

After arriving at Oliver Lee S.P. we got setup and prepared for an Easter dinner with Rick & Debbie. The table was setup in the shade behind our RV and we enjoyed a nice dinner. After dinner we took the dogs and hiked into the Riparian Nature trail, which went up through the creek bed. It was shaded and lovely with a small flowing creek. This wonderful campground is located in the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains. What an amazing place with great views of the Tularosa Valley.

The next morning, we all hiked up the Dog Canyon Trail, which winds up to a peak overlooking the canyon and the valley. The trail was well maintained and had a steep elevation change. We hiked up to the 2 mile mark, which took us 2 hours. We then headed back down to the campground. We didn’t see much wildlife; however, Rick & Debbie did have a snake encounter. On their way down, they came within 2 feet of a Western Diamondback rattlesnake. The snake was not aggressive and wasn’t even coiled up, but rattled a warning. They moved slowly past it and were not affected.

After lunch, we packed up the truck and headed to White Sands National Monument. It’s so amazing how large this white gypsum sand dune field is, 275 square miles! We watched a video which explained how the dunes were formed over the centuries and continue to change to this day. The sand is amazingly cool, even with the direct sun. We had decided to arrive in the middle of the afternoon so we could stay for sunset. We played in the sand, took pictures of our shadows and footprints. We didn’t have sled saucers to slide down the dunes, so Kurt improvised. We did have the kayaks on our truck, so he took down my 12’ Tarpon and hauled it up to a dune top. He was able to successfully slide (uh, kayak) down the dune; several people on a nearby dune stopped to watch him. He did it a second time and we all had a great laugh. We were not surprised that he would find a way to slide down the sand dune!  For awhile, we sat at one of the picnic tables and enjoyed Happy Hour. As sunset approached, we took more great pictures of the changing shadows and the San Andres Mountains to the west. What a great day we all had, we will cherish these wonderful memories.

The next day, we decided to drive north of Alamogordo to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Area, which was inhabited by ancient Indians who carved over 21,000 glyphs in stones around the area. We spent the afternoon looking for glyphs and taking pictures of the most prolific images. We also hiked around the nearby ancient “village” where these natives lived and observed some ruins of their homes. It was a great day to learn about the history of this area.

Later in the evening, we began preparing for our next day and the move to Deming, New Mexico and Rockhound State Park.

SW Tour 2014 - Carlsbad, New Mexico

Carlsbad, New Mexico

April 16 – 19

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After a one night stop in Ft. Stockton, Texas, we headed into New Mexico to Carlsbad. After a drive through the desert with endless views of oil and gas wells, we arrived at the RV park and got setup for the evening. This area of the country has so much oil production it’s amazing! The town of Carlsbad is mostly inhabited by oil and gas workers, with some tourism for Carlsbad Caverns.

The next day we headed to Carlsbad Caverns for a couple of tours.  After going through the Visitors Center, we walked down to the natural entrance. This allowed us to do a self-guided tour through parts of the cavern with trails that head down to the Big Room area. We spent about 2.5 hours viewing this part of the cavern. The amazing formations are so beautiful and such a treat to look at. It’s so hard to imagine how these mineral forms were created over 10s of thousands of years ago! We had lunch in the café at the Visitors Center, then proceeded to the meetup spot for our guided tour of the Kings Palace rooms. The Ranger was a great tour guide and was an experienced caver. He offered so much information on the cave geology, what’s in the cave and what’s not. We were fortunate to have this Ranger as our guide. This part of the cavern is a separate wing that had smaller rooms, but was much more decorated with formations than the other parts of the cave. What an amazing place! We had considered staying until dusk for the bat flight, but the guide did advise us that this time of year the bats are migrating and there may or may not be many bats.  After this tour, we followed another range up to the observation deck of the Visitors Center. Here we were able to see great views of the valley below. He described much of the geology of the area and the caves. He pointed out landmark locations in relation to the Big Room and the Bottomless Pit sections of the cavern below. He also explained how this land was once under a sea and the mountains were a huge reef. What a wonderful day for a tour of these amazing caverns!

The next day, we again headed south to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. There were several great hikes there and the prime landmark is El Capitan, which is the second highest peak in the Guadalupes. We spoke with the rangers to advise us on trail conditions and decided to go on the  Permian Reef Trail. This was an amazing hike which was 4 miles to the peak. We only hiked up about 2 miles, as the trail was steep and the elevation gain was about 1000 feet. We stopped to eat our lunch there and we decided to head back down. Kurt was determined to go to the peak, so he continued upward. Debbie, Rick and I headed back to the trailhead. Kurt did make it to the top and took some more great pictures. He met us back at the trailhead about an hour later.  This was such a great hike, and we all enjoyed our first desert/mountain hike on this trip. There will be many more to come.

The next day we had planned to go mountain biking on some local trails near the town of Carlsbad, but we woke up to a thunderstorm. We hunkered down for awhile and Kurt said he couldn’t sit around in the camper any longer, so he drove back to Carlsbad Caverns. He wanted to see it again, and to hike back up and out the natural entrance. He really enjoyed it the second time.

Later we had Happy Hour and began preparing for our departure the next day. We will be heading to Alamogordo, New Mexico.

SW Tour 2014 - San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio, Texas – Hidden Valley RV Park

March 11 -14

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While driving from Austin to San Antonio, we realized how large San Antonio actually is. A very large metropolitan area with surrounding suburbs. The city has a maze of interstates and highways that create several large spaghetti junctions. We fortunately had chosen a lovely RV park on the southwest side of SA, near a town of Von Ormy. Hidden Valley RV Park is located in a beautiful valley out in the country. When we arrived, Rick & Debbie were already setup, as they had previously been in Blessing Texas to visit family. This RV park was very quiet and spacious with just a few other RVs. We were able to let the dogs run off leash, which they really enjoyed. After setting up, we all had happy hour and snacks. Later, Kurt built a huge campfire at the campground firepit. We all enjoyed the evening around the fire and met two young men who were staying there while working on a pipeline job.

The next morning, we geared up for a major bike ride. Along the San Antonio River is an awesome paved hike/bike trail on both sides that follows the river and had stops at each of the four historic missions. We headed north towards the city and stopped at the Mission Concepcion for a tour. It’s amazing that these missions were built in the 1700’s by Spanish Franciscan priests and are still standing. The structures are mostly in great shape, but had been pillaged by the local Indians after they were secularized in the 1800’s. It was a great time to learn some more history about this part of our country. After a couple of hours, we headed back to the campground. The wind had picked up to about 15-20 mph, it was a tough ride into this headwind.

Later, we got all cowboyed up and headed to a rodeo. North of SA is Tejas Rodeo, a great complex out in the boonies that has Saturday night rodeos. It’s a complex of rodeo arena, steakhouse, bars and dancehall. We really enjoyed the rodeo and hung out listening to music for awhile.

The next day, we went into the city and took a boat cruise on the San Antonio Riverwalk. What an amazing place this is, with the river below regular street level. The river winds through the city with walk paths on each side. Along the Riverwalk are restaurants, shopping, historic homes/buildings, gardens and lovely cypress trees. What a beautiful urban attraction! We also walked around town and toured the Alamo complex, another great part of American history. We ate lunch at a Peruvian festival and later went to the Buckhorn Saloon, a historic place in SA. We all had a wonderful time in this city.

After returning to camp, Kurt built an EPIC campfire. We sat around the fire until we were tired and headed to bed. The next morning, storms rolled in and we were forced to hunker down inside until it moved through. We then went into town for lunch and to visit the remaining three missions. After a nice day of touring, we headed back to camp for the evening.

Next we are heading to Carlsbad, New Mexico.  We are looking forward to the caverns tour and some great hiking!

SW Trip 2014 - Austin, Texas

McKinney Falls State Park - Austin, Texas

March 7 – 10

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This state park is located very close to the city on the southeastern side, yet feels like it’s out in the country. Upon arrial we were able to pick the site we wanted. It was very large and backed up to the woods and trails; perfect! This park is known for its limestone geology with the Onion Creek waterfalls flowing over rocky ledges. At this time the waterfalls were very small, as there is an ongoing drought in Texas.

The next morning, we decided to take a drive around Austin and go by Kurt’s childhood home and other nostalgic locations. We first drove northwest of the city to Lake Travis. The lake is also very low due to the drought. The water is very clear and blue, with some marinas. We drove around the lake to a small county park where we were able to get some nice pictures. Then we drove back into town to find Kurt’s former home. He lived there for a few years (8 – 12 yrs old) when his father was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force base. The old neighborhood looked much like it did when he lived there. While driving around the area, we found a local Mexican food restaurant and had a wonderful lunch! Then we drove downtown to visit the Texas State Capitol. I was amazed that Kurt would even consider the tour, but he did enjoy it. We also visited Zilker Park, where Kurt and his friends hung out. It’s a beautiful urban park with many activities, including a natural spring fed swimming pool. Later, back at the campground, we built a nice fire and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
The next day, we geared up for mountain biking and rode all 9 miles. About 6 miles had some technical sections of mountain biking. We enjoyed the exercise and the beautiful weather. After lunch, we got ready to head into town for some evening fun. The Broken Spoke is an authentic, historic Texan honky-tonk dancehall in Austin. It was a lot of fun; we even participated in the two-step dance instruction. However; Kurt was really not in the mood for dancing, so we enjoyed watching some serious dancers. The evening was a lot of fun as we experienced some real Texas culture.

Our last full day there was spent on a scenic drive in the country. This part of Texas is “Hill Country” and we drove west of Austin to the “Devil’s Backbone” scenic drive, which took a few hours. It was an amazing area of mostly ranches. The hills and valleys were beautiful, with limestone terraces. As part of the drive, we visited a barbeque place that we had seen on the Travel Channel and rated as the number 1 in the US. The Salt Lick barbeque is  located out in the country near the small town of Driftwood. Even as remote as it is, the place was very busy on a weekday. The food was wonderful and we stuffed ourselves. We will have to try other Texas barbeque to see if any of them are as good.

Back at camp, we began preparing for our departure the next morning. We will be heading to San Antonio, only a couple hours’ drive southwest.

SW Trip 2014 - Village Creek State Park, Lumberton, TX

Village Creek State Park – Lumberton, TX

April 3 – 6

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This Texas State Park is just a few miles north of Beaumont. When we arrived at this park, we instantly liked it! The rangers were very friendly and helpful. We were provided all the maps, general info on the park without even having to ask! They allowed us to drive around and pick the site we wanted. Rick & Debbie had arrived prior to us, and the ranger suggested two sites they called “buddy sites”. These worked out perfectly, we were close to each other and basically shared a common outdoor space.

The first afternoon, Debbie and I ran into town to look for firewood, gas and a few grocery items. Later in the evening the guys made a large campfire, as we had bought a large bundle of wood at the market. We hung out by the fire for awhile, but the wind was blowing smoke all around. We called it a night and headed inside.

In the morning, after coffee and breakfast, we geared up for mountain biking. This park has excellent mountain biking trails, which we really enjoyed during our four days there. The trails were designated as easy to advanced. Debbie and I both rode most of the trails, even part of the advanced one! We both feel we are getting much better and stronger as we ride more. We rode the trails for the remaining three days.

The next day, we had arranged an outfitter for a shuttle. Rick, Debbie, Kurt and I had a relaxing, beautiful day on Village Creek. The Creek is more like a river, has good current and was pretty much an easy downstream float. Kurt decided to bring Kody, since he’d been cooped up so much on this trip.  There were many nice sandbars along the winding river. We stopped at some, to rest, eat lunch and let Kody run. At one point, Kurt decided to let Kody off his kayak at the beginning of large sandbars and then pick him back up at the end of each sandbar. Boy, was this a great idea, Kody loved it and it was his best river kayak ever! I’m sure he will get to do this again when there are nice sandbars.

The last night, we had a really, nice campfire and we hung out into the evening. It was a lot of fun to relax around the warm fire as it had been pretty chilly at night.

We would highly recommend this park for its great outdoor activities and excellent campground (really clean, nice bathhouses). The friendly rangers were also a very positive attribute. It was one of those parks where we immediately felt at home. We reluctantly departed to head to Austin, Texas.

SW Trip 2014 - Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, Louisiana

Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, Louisiana

March 31 – April 2

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This state park is really out in the boonies (aka bayou). Our RV sites were right on the water with a dock. We shared the dock between our two sites with Rick & Debbie. It was really nice sitting out there for happy hour in the evenings and coffee in the mornings. The dogs really enjoyed it also. The weather was very nice while there. After setting up, it was later in the afternoon, so we started happy hour early. Kurt also took Kody for a short evening paddle to get some idea of the paddling.

The next day, we all went riding on the mountain bike trails. The trails were excellent and there were three levels of difficulty. Debbie and I were able to ride them all; except for a short, muddy area of the difficult trail. It felt good to get out and get some exercise. After lunch Rick, Kurt and I went kayaking around the paddling trail which was all swamp area. The weather was sunny and beautiful. We saw very little wildlife on this water trail, just a small gator and some birds. We discovered that even within this park, there were oil wells and production activity. However, it seemed to have very little impact on the natural beauty of the park. This was a beautiful bayou for paddling!

The last day, we again went out mountain biking. It was so much fun, challenging and great exercise! In the afternoon, Kurt and I went out for a short paddle around a different part of the bayou. Here we saw a couple of huge gators! Kurt fished awhile and caught a channel catfish and a small green bass. 

This area of Louisiana is very remote with beautiful bayous. Our three days in this park were very enjoyable and relaxing.