National parks in TX & NM

9/4/2009 - 9/8/2009

Labor day weekend, we wanted to make a trip, not sure where. After evaluating few options: seattle, west colorado, new orleans, and El paso, TX for Big bend, carlsbad caverns, guadalupe, and white sand national monuments, we chose the latter one. Mostly not wanting to miss any of good western scenes when we are still here.

Pre-trip research and reservations:

Flight to el paso (which is cheap and saved time to drive there)
Reservations for car rental at EL paso airport
Reservations for tour guide in carlsbad caverns NP, for slaughter canyon cave and kings palace cave. The only two available at the day I booked.
Reservations for Casa grande rooms at chisos mountains lodge in big bend NP
Hotel reservations for Friday and Monday at El paso, Saturday night at whites city NM (just outside of carlsbad caverns NP)

Reality:
Very fast car pick up at the airport, and a stunning look at the city residential lights from hotel area

Woke up by the alarm at 4:45 am to get ready to go to the carlsbad caverns NP, afraid of construction delay

Pulled over by police checking point. Without my green card in hand, we had to stay there for 15 minutes for the officers checking my background making sure I am not an illegal immigrant. It turned out fine after.

Was chased by police car after more than 15 miles drive after the checkpoint, and got pulled over in shock. It turned out it is the police officer from the checkpoint to return our car rental documents. The latino officer smiled to me and said, "have a great day!"

A big up hike to slaughter canyon cave entry point, which is outside the NP. Dark in the cave, funny guide, and climbing with a rope in hand. Great tour.

Open house self guided tour inside the park. 750 feet down in the elevator. A stunning view in the very beginning. We were warned that time might not be enough for the whole area before King palace tour started. But I thought we should be fine then kept going. It turned out the warning was right, the back road is unexpectedly long, I had to rush/jogging back out since I needed to go to the bathroom badly, probably stimulated by the cold air?

King palace cave is really really good.

Drove to Carlsbad and got roasted chicken from albertsons. Best roasted chicken in the USA! Finished almost all on the lawn just outside the hotel room in Whites city.

A drive to big bend NP is full of discomfort of an expected checkpoint delay - luckily it didn't happen.

Incredible low traffic at the entrance - nobody even worked at entrance booth and it was the labor day weekend.

Two trips planed in big bend:
First a drive to rio grande village. There was a hot springs area with rio grande river running adjacent to it. Unfortunately I didn't bring my swimming pants. Planned to swim just nakedly, but there were mexicans on the other side of the river now and then. On a hiking trail we came across a mafia-look Mexican riding a horse, with few small souvenir stuff aside, he asked us if we would like to buy some. We said we might consider it on the way back. Keeping on our trail, we saw him riding down the trail to the river, which is the border, back to Mexican side, where probably his wife/or kid? was waiting there with another horse tied on a tree. On the way hike back, we left 5 bucks in his can on the side of vendor area. I waved to him from faraway and hope he knows.

After collecting some drinking water outside the NP visitor center, we kept on another trail to Cottonwood and Santa Elena overlook area, still hoping we can take a swim in the other part of the river. The drive is amazingly scenic. I pulled over to take some videos and George found some interesting bugs (see photo above) The river turns out to be way too muddy to swim - it is like the Yellow river in China. At the Santa Elena overlook, we saw a group of hikers sort of stuck in some areas with no trail around - it doesn't look like they need help since they saw us and didn't say anything. Nobody else was there, very quiet.

There are many unique plants and animals in this park. Encountered many of bugs/animals across the road, and snakes twice.

When we arrived our lodge, the restaurant was already closed (they close at 8 pm!). We had some snacks and went to sleep. Next morning we took a hike just outside the lodge room. I was afraid of mountain lions, which is supposedly more frequently seen in the early morning, I tried to speak loudly when I can. We also tried cactus fruit, but get really stung everywhere on our fingers from hidden needles. Not worth it and not recommending it.

Out of bid bend, we stopped at Telingua, which was a big mining town, but became a ghost town after an accidental explosion. We went to a wrong ghost town in the beginning, where everywhere is broken houses. The real ghost town has a big cemetery on a high land.

The drive after that was extremely bumpy. We stopped at one spot of big bend state park, where the movies "uphill all the way" "My maria" and several others were made. Since then it has been deserted for more than 9 years.

Not surprisingly, we got pulled over again by check point one more time, and this time the police officer told me he could arrest me right then. We finally got away.

Although tired and exhausted, we decided to keep on going to White sands national monument that day. It was not a good idea, I over drove last several days and especially that day I drove more than 500 miles in 9 hours without a break. In an abrupt decision, I drove onto a very hidden narrow one way road, but on a wrong direction. A car drove towards us, shocked to see our car, us shocked as well. After a struggle, I finally backed our car out of this one way ramp - which is actually a ramp entrance to the highway.

Not fully recovering from the shocking, unhappy, helpless, feeling-lucky-not-having-an-accident, and guilty mood, I saw another checkpoint coming. Sighing why I didn't bring my green card with me although this is a domestic trip, the latino officer at the checkpoint waved us to keep on going. Based on George's analysis, they were busy having supper.

The White sand NM is great. It covers such a big area that it reminds me some part of sahara desert in Morocco. It feels a big ice land there like underneath us it is a lake or ocean. A double rainbow was in the air speaking out its beauty as if telling us it is worth anything to come here.



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