Carlsbad Caverns & Big Bend National Parks – Continuing our Trip
After visiting White Sands and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks we traveled on to visit two more parks, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and Big Bend in Texas. Click here to view Part 1.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
While staying at Guadalupe Mountains National Park we took advantage of its proximity to Carlsbad Caverns National Park which is about 45 minutes away. There are a number of caves beneath the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest and most famous of which is Carlsbad Caverns. There don’t seem to be any guided tours at this time (I know there were a few when I looked back in February. Probably cut due to staffing shortages.) so we took the Big Room Trail through the cave, entering by the Natural Entrance trail. In order to avoid overcrowding you need to book an entrance time on recreation.gov. The cost is a $1 per person and well worth it.
You can choose to take the elevator or walk either in our out of the cave. The chose to walk down and take the elevator up. After a brief orientation from a ranger we entered through the natural entrance. We had the first entry time in the morning and there were a few bats milling around on their way back to roost just outside the cave. We spent about an hour and a half walking the 1-1/4 mile route through the Big Room, taking time to enjoy the different formations. We’ve been to a few other caves including Wind Cave and Jewel Cave but this room is really BIG!
After riding the elevator back to the surface we spent some time in the visitors center. Although there are trails above ground we opted to swing by McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park on our way back to camp. You can take a look at our gallery of photos from Carlsbad Caverns here.
Big Bend National Park
After finishing up at Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns we headed south to Big Bend National Park on the Rio Grande, a five or six hour drive.
Getting There is Half the Fun
We entered the park around 2:00 on a Friday afternoon and after driving ten minutes or so on the entrance road our tire pressure monitoring system began to beep intermittently, indicating a slow leak in our right rear outer tire. We pulled over and watched it slowly lose pressure as we contacted roadside assistance who said they’d get someone out to us as soon as possible.
Unfortunately they called back in about 10 minutes to say they couldn’t find anyone in the area (Alpine, TX is the nearest decent-sized city, about 80 miles away.), but we were free to find someone on our own to fix the flat. I’ve changed the motorhome tires myself before, but it was impossible to get the lugs to loosen at all so we needed someone with an impact wrench. After trying several roadside assistance outfits and having no luck (By then it was 3:00 on a Friday.) we decided the best course of action was to slowly drive the remaining 20 miles with the 1 flat dually wheel. Not the recommended thing to do, but there wasn’t much choice. Either that or spend the night by the side of the road in the desert.
It took about an hour to drive to the Rio Grande Village Campground in the southeast part of the park and as we were finally parking on our site we heard air rushing out of the right front tire. Now we had two flats, but at least we were on our site and didn’t need to move. After calling a couple more roadside assistance operations and not not making much headway over the weekend, we were referred by a local gas station to Bill Williams Tire in Alpine. Talked to them on Monday and they had a truck out to us on Tuesday and fixed both tires. We were really glad we had satellite internet as there’s no cell service within 20 miles or so of Rio Grande Village and no pay phones.
The Park
We lost some time to the tire situation, but were still able to see and do a lot in the park. As its name would imply, the campground is close to the Rio Grande, with a trail to an overlook with gorgeous sunsets. Being relatively close to the river means there are trees and grass instead of cactus for foliage, and the area is home to horses, cattle and javelinas.
It was unseasonably warm while we were there with temperatures getting into the low 90s most days, but being in the desert the air was dry and temperatures dropped to around 50°F overnight.
The most popular part of the park is Chisos Basin which is about 3,500 feet higher in elevation than the Rio Grande, making the area comfortably cool when it gets hot at the lower elevations. We took a great hike there to The Window, the pour-off for Oak Creek, which drains the basin. It’s a nice, moderately difficult hike that follows the creek bed most of the way to a spectacular view of the desert below from the Window.
We also took the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to Castolon, a former farm and mining community on the Texas-Mexico border. Along the way there are quite a few spots to stop and take a look at both natural and man-made wonders, including abandoned ranches and slot canyons.
You can check out our Big Bend gallery here.
The Trip Back North
We decided to drive back by way of San Angelo, TX to break up the drive a bit better. We stayed at San Angelo State Park and visited Plateau Brewing downtown for a couple of pints and dinner. Even got a tour from the owner.
From there it was back to Wichita and then on to Minnesota. Overall it was a great trip, really nice to get out in some warm weather for a change and worth the challenges we faced with our tires.
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