Our final day of touring around the beautiful state of New Mexico had arrived. We would begin the long drive home the following day. Bobby had read of the amazing National Monument, the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Tucked into the cliffside along the Gila River are the stone structures where a group of several families from the Mogollon Tribe, roughly 20-30 people according to the volunteer ranger we spoke to, lived in the late 1200s. Bobby was drawn to this site for multiple reasons. Primarily, things like pictographs and ancient dwellings are intriguing, mysterious, and wonderful to view. Secondly, the road…
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Our stay at the Carlsbad KOA was supposed to be coming to an end but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that we weren’t going to be visiting Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We were only 75 miles away and it felt wrong to be that close to a National Park and miss out on it. We decided to squish two days together further along in our itinerary and stay an extra day at the KOA, thereby making the day trip to Guadalupe a reality! We drove the hour and twenty minutes to the national park. Jack had fallen asleep on…
Sitting Bull Falls
We had been driving A LOT for the past 7 days so we opted for a hike, recommended by many, that was only 40 minutes from our campground. After driving down a winding desert road for 20 miles or so we arrived at the day use area within Lincoln National Forest, found at the end of the road. We were the first car in the parking lot! The park opens at 8:30am and closes to incoming traffic at 4:00 and outgoing traffic at 5:00. This is strictly enforced with gates and a tire shredder. The day-use area is $5 per…
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
I had read of Carlsbed Caverns in Nevada Barr’s mystery novel, Blind Descent. Her descriptions of the caverns intrigued me and had me dreaming of visiting there someday. As we were planning a two week road trip to the southwest, so as to escape the frigid Minnesota winter temperatures, I knew Carlsbad Cavern National Park had to be on our “Must-See” list. Driving while hauling our newly purchased Lance 1575 travel trailer along with traveling with a rambunctious toddle meant that our daily progress wasn’t nearly as fast as we had planned. We were a day behind schedule right off…