This is STOP 9, the 24th, 25th, and 26th days of our ten week cross country fall adventure in 2021! Here is a link to our previous stop in Alpine TX
The Drive from Alpine, TX to Carlsbad, NM
We leave Alpine via the only road left that we haven’t driven on, TX 188 north toward Fort Davis. In Fort Davis we head north on TX 17 north to Balmorhea.
At Balmorhea State Park we find the amazing and largest natural spring fed swimming pool that is used for both swimming and scuba diving. The pool was built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Core and the water stays between 72 and 76 degrees, reaching depths up to 25 feet. In these deeper sections, the bottom is “natural” – only a small area in the shallower end has a concrete bottom. Over 22 million gallons of water a day flows through the pool, meaning it needs no chlorination. We put this on our list of reasons to return to the area (about a 1 hour drive from Alpine).
Next we get on I-10 west and cover 50 miles at 80mph through a very scenic area to Van Horn. We change to TX 54 north to Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
The Guadalupe Mountain Range includes the highest point in TX at 8751 feet, Guadalupe Peak, and also a well-known landmark, El Capitan, that was used by travelers along the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line. The mountains rise more than 3,000 feet (910 m) above the arid floor of the Chihuahuan Desert. This isn’t a park you see by car, this is a park you hike into. Most of the hiking trails are listed as moderate or strenuous) and it is well known for rock climbing. At the Pine Springs Visitor Center we learn this area was once part of the same sea we learned about in the Big Bend area. Part of the park is in the Mountain Time zone – but between our watches, cell phones, car clock and GPS clock – we get no consensus what time it is.
After the Visitor Center, our first stop is the restored Frijole Ranch (building closed) that also serves as the trailhead to Smith Springs. The 2.3 mile trail is a loop that we do counter-clockwise – all uphill on either way up and all downhill either way back. The first .4 miles is paved until we pass Manzanita Springs, then it turns into a narrow dirt path with lots of rocks and brush. Nancy struggles a little with the lower oxygen levels at this elevation and we foolishly only brought one bottle of water. Most of the hike is in the sun and it’s in the upper 80’s. Smith Springs itself is an oasis in the shade (we swear it must be 20 degrees cooler) an the downhill hike back is much more enjoyable. This hike took almost 3 hours.
Our next stop is at the trailhead for several hikes in and around McKittrick Canyon. Four of the five hikes are between 4-6 hours long – so at this point in the day, we opt for the 1 mile McKittrick Canyon Nature Trail. Again, uphill for the first half, then downhill for the second. It is all a narrow dirt path with lots of rocks and brush (always on the look-out to avoid rattlesnakes). The guide books and the rangers both suggest going clock-wise on the trail, but somehow we manage to do it counter-clockwise. At the top we are rewarded with an overlook for some of the canyon. There are numerous signs about the various plants, but unfortunately, the signs are stainless steel, the font is small and green – not a good combination for reading in the sunlight. This hike took 1 hour.
The Trinity Hotel
Once we leave the park, we head on TX 180/US 64 towards Carlsbad, cross the border into New Mexico (where our clocks all sync to Mountain Time) and pass the Carlsbad Caverns that we will visit tomorrow. After 45 minutes, we reach the lovely and beautifully restored Trinity Hotel & Restaurant. The building was originally the First National Bank. The lobby does not connect to any of the rooms – we have to go outside and go up a metal staircase. Our hostess shows us to our room and mentions that this staircase is better than the internal, very narrow and steep one (that still requires access from outside). We have reserved room 205, a corner room with a king size bed. The ceilings are probably 12′ high, the furniture is “period” and we bring up our gear and settle in. It was slightly unnerving to see a jar of ear plugs in the bathroom, but we never heard much noise and never had to consider using them.
Dinner – The Lucky Bull
It is the first night of sudden death baseball playoffs for the World Series and we want to catch Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees. The hotel hostess mentions that the place directly across the street, The Lucky Bull, has TVs so we cross the street and grab 2 seats at the bar. This was a really cute place with the ambiance we’re looking for. Harrison orders the J Pizzle Burger – a spicy green chili burger with “lots of kick” and Nancy orders the Chicken Fried Steak – a portion large enough for two grown men! We chit chat with various folks that sit at the bar and we blissfully watch as the Sox beat the Yankees. Great choice!
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
The hotel has a modern coffee shop, bakery & full restaurant. Our stay includes coffee and freshly baked muffins or scones. We opt for the free breakfast and head out to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, 20 miles south.
In 1898, a teenager named Jim White was looking for stray cattle on the ranch where he worked and noticed thousands of bats rising in the air. He described it like a volcano going off so he worked his way through the brush until he saw what he described as the biggest and blackest hole he’d ever seen. A few day later he decided to explore the cavern with a homemade wire ladder and an oil lantern. Over many trips, he found several caves and named many formations – more of the story can be found here. In 1923, it became a National Monument and in 1930, a National Park.
The Caverns
All tours are currently self-guided but one must pre-purchase tickets ahead of time for timed entry. We had purchased the last time slot of the day, 1:30pm thinking we would first drive the scenic loop, then tour the caves. With our early start, we are hoping we can switch to an earlier time and reverse the order of these adventures. Sure enough, we arrive at 8:30 and they let us switch to the 8:30 tour time, so we hustle over to the cave entrance. On a packed day, there are 250 tickets per hourly time slot, but there are only about 100 people at the moment. The ranger at the cave entrance sends groups of about 12 every 5 minutes down into the cave. Mask on, we enter the cave.
The walk down is paved and “extremely steep”. The path down is 1.25 miles and descends 750 feet (like hiking down a 75 story building) via switchback after switchback. Our eyes adjust to the darkness and we can easily hear other hikers as they whisper to each other (they say you can hear a whisper within an 1/8 of a mile). We walk past formations such as Devil’s Spring, the Whale’s Mouth, and Iceberg Rock. By the time we reach the “Big Room”, our calves are feeling the burn and about 1.5 hours has passed. We are grateful the way back up is via an elevator!
The “Big Room” is the largest single cave chamber in North America and the 31st largest in the world. It is almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 255 feet high at its highest point. The trail in this room is mostly flat, is 1.25 miles and takes about 1.5 hours. We see countless stalactites (attached to the ground) such as Castle Spring Dome, stalagmites (attached to the ceiling) such as The Chandelier, pools of water such as Mirror Lake and other caves such as the bottomless pit. Photography does not do justice to the sights nature offers.
After our elevator ride back up – directly into the gift shop (of course), we finally have the opportunity to explore the museum in the Visitor Center.
Walnut Canyon Scenic Drive
Next we embark on the 9 mile (gravel road) scenic drive along the rim of and eventually down through Walnut Canyon. We stop about 2 miles in for a roadside lunch. The speed limit is 15mph but the condition of the road means we typically drive far slower than that. It takes us about 1 hour to complete the drive.
Dinner – The Trinity Hotel
We’re ready for dinner and pretty tired from over 17,000 steps today. We opt to do as little walking as possible to get to dinner and have dinner at the hotel restaurant. This place gets great reviews and we agree. Our bartender Prissy is a gem and tells us this is the busiest Wednesday they’ve had in quite a while. Harrison orders Chicken Bollaca (a spicy version of Chicken Fettuccini) and Nancy orders the bacon wrapped filet mignon. There’s a TV at the bar so we get to watch another sudden death Baseball World Series Playoff game. This time it is a much closer game with the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the Atlanta Braves 4 to 3.
Sitting Bull Falls
We find a scenic drive in one of our books on Scenic Drives of New Mexico – that gets us to a view of a 150′ waterfall in a canyon in the Lincoln National Forest. We head north on NM 285 and then west on NM 137 for about 20 miles where the scenic drive starts. About 20 miles on NM 137, we turn at the sign for the Sitting Bull Falls Recreational Area. After a few miles of driving, we park at the picnic area which boasts some beautiful stone pavilions shading each individual picnic table. We have a fairly short .6 mile hike to the waterfall area. There are actually 2 different falls here and several pools of cool water. We can see from the foliage, that when this area gets rain, it can easily be completely engulfed in deeper waters. We spend about 30 minutes hiking around the falls to see it from various angles, then head back.
Roswell, NM
Time for some cheesy, touristy time, and Roswell, NM is sure to delight. It is about an hour’s drive north and along the way we pass through Artesia which has a pretty large refinery. As we near the town, the aliens and spaceships start showing up on gas stations and other buildings. We park the car by the International UFO Museum & Research Center, but our first order of business is lunch. This area is gift shop after souvenir shop after gift shop – not very many places to get food. Even google maps and around me aren’t very helpful. After walking about 10 blocks and turning down a side street, we finally find Martin’s Capitol Café, a place I’d seen on TripAdvisor. It doesn’t look like much from either the outside or the inside – but it works. It is kind of like a Mexican diner – and the food is large portions and tasty! We go back to the museum and it is everything we were looking for. There are numerous exhibits and information about the 1947 incident the museum supports as an alien spaceship crash site. We’ll just say it was pretty convincing that something happened that the government definitely tried to conceal. There are also numerous exhibits from well-known alien movies and of course, a gift shop.
Dinner – Catching Up With a Friend at the Yellow Brix Restaurant
Two years ago on another adventure, we met this guy Nate at a brewery & bar while having dinner in Vernal, UT. We shared a love of travel and after many hours of great conversation, it ended with “if you are ever in Carlsbad, NM, look me up”. And so we did. Nate is the Battalion Chief of the Carlsbad Fire Department and takes a few minutes off of his shift to met up with us for dinner at the Yellow Brix Restaurant. Harrison enjoyed the Green Chilil Cheeseburger and Nancy delights in eating the Classic Fettuccini. And we had another exceptional evening of conversation and travel story telling.
Dinner with Nate Skelton in Carlsbad
Our Verdict
The Guadalupe Mountains were slightly underwhelming and Carlsbad Caverns are mediocre compared to other caverns we seen – but still something worth experiencing once in your life. We’re glad we came to the Carlsbad area, but it is most likely a once and done for us. In the future, we may use the Trinity Hotel as a one night stop if it works into a travel need to break up a longer drive.
Next Up
We are off to Taos NM – which is a “re-visit” location for us. Heads up – another scenic choo choo train trip.
Here is a link to our previous stop in Alpine TX
I can’t believe how much you guys are getting through on this trip, jealous just reading it. Great to read!