Captain's Choice blog: New Mexico

Kudos to Mark and his driving experience to get us through the morning rush hour traffic leaving San Antonio Wednesday, April 9. It seems like it was a be in the left lane, be in the right lane, then be in the left lane again to get us on our way and out of San Antonio. Thank goodness for GPS too…paper maps would be impossible with all of these roads. So many times, Mark will say, “are you sure you don’t want to drive?”, my answer is always the same, “yes, I’m sure!” Besides, I think I have the passenger floorboard worn out from putting the brakes on. That’s when Mark usually looks over and smiles and tells me "no need to eject honey, everything is under control, at least for now". I have to add it's not Mark's driving, but all these crazy people that think you should cut over 4 lanes to the exit with only a few feet between you.

The plan was to take I-10 and get off early and pick up route 87 so we could see some of the hill country. That worked out great, we drove past ranch after ranch…cattle, sheep, goats and cotton fields. After 225 miles we settled in at San Angelo State Park for the night. The sites are large, and we even got to see some Texas deer and some kind of prairie dogs running around.

The next 292 miles brought us to New Mexico, “Land of Enchantment” on Thursday, April 10. High 80’s, low humidity, sunshine and the mountain time zone. We made our home for the next two nights in Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad. Mark made the reservations for this campsite 6 months ago, the day they opened online. He definitely got the best spot! As much as I like the big cities, I love traveling the rural highways and being able to see the small towns. It just really gives you a feel for rural America and being in the desert you can see as far as the eye will let you. It is flat, flat, flat.

Friday was our day to visit the Carlsbad Caverns. They have timed admission tickets that you can book online, or you can get tickets when you arrive. During the busy summer months, reserving ahead of time would definitely be recommended. Our first impression of the caverns was “WOW” and we weren’t alone with our assessment. As we walked the 1.25 miles transcending down 750’ we could hear people saying, “wow look at this”. People were taking picture after picture as the trail wound back and forth going down deeper and deeper. We took a lot of pictures and tried to pick out the best to include in the blog, but none of them will do it justice.

We were scheduled to stay at Brantley State Park three nights, but mother nature had us leaving Saturday due to high wind warnings on Sunday. Pulling a high-profile vehicle in high winds with no trees to block the gusts just did not sound appealing. We traveled 228 miles to Las Cruces, New Mexico where we were greeted with temperatures in the high 90’s. Now people will tell you it’s a dry heat, yes, it is but 98 degrees is HOT! There are two different routes we could have taken, the desert route or the mountain route. Mark chose the mountain route for a couple reasons; the scenery, the temperatures would be cooler and White Sands National Park would be on our route. The mountain route was spectacular and gave us a taste of some of the areas we will be visiting as we move further north. White Sands National Park is another highlight of this area.

Currently we are at Hacienda RV Resort in Las Cruces for a few nights. We needed to grocery shop, do laundry, let the winds subside and regroup a little before we head to Arizona to spend time with family and friends.

One of the little towns we passed through. This is Mason, TX pop. 2,116

Beautiful mural in Brady, TX pop. 5,118 and home to the world

championship bar-b-que goat cook-off

Look at the antlers on this buck and it's only April. Generally speaking, Texas whitetails are not as big as their brothers up north, but their antler growth is generally better than NY

Sunset in San Angelo State Park

Pump jacks were everywhere from Texas to New Mexico. A pumpjack is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well. It is used to mechanically lift liquid out of the well if there is not enough bottom hole pressure for the liquid to flow all the way to the surface.

New Mexico is called the "Land of Enchantment" due to its unique blend

of natural beauty, rich history and diverse cultures.

Sunset view from our site at Brantley Lake State Park, NM

Then the moon to the east

Welcome to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Yes, those are Jeans we are wearing.

The temperature in the Caverns are a constant 56 degrees.

This is the amphitheater at the natural entrance to the cavern. The park rangers conduct a bat flight program from Memorial Day weekend through October. It is estimated that typically 300,000 bats exit the cave entrance flying off for their night of foraging/eating. The best times to view the bats, are after July because the baby bats join the adults. Thousands of Brazilian free-tailed bats migrate here each spring to raise their young in the cave.

You can descend 750', walking 1.25 miles through this entrance or you can

take an elevator down to the "big room". We opted to walk down and ride up.

The descent is well paved but steep. It is recommended to bring a small flashlight,

but it is dimly lit as to not disturb the delicate ecosystem of the creatures that live in the cave.

It is much darker than these photos appear. We took these shots using a 4 second time lapse to gather the available light, so we apologize if they are a little blurry.

The Whales Mouth, a type of cave formation

The Big Room - ceiling heights up to 200' high

This place is immense in size and the pictures don't do it justice.

Here I am standing next to a stalagmite; it gives you an idea of what we were experiencing.

Hopefully when you enlarge this picture you can read it.

Fascinating

Mirror Lake

The water that drips from the ceilings is perfectly still until another drop is added.

These cave formations have been formed by water. Dripping, evaporating, mixing with gases to make acids and other processes. The big room level of the caverns was formed 4 million years ago.

The walk around the perimeter of the big room is 1.25 miles long and takes about 1.5 hours to complete, and that's after the 1.25-mile hike down from the natural entrance