The Adventures of T&A

We had a beautiful sunrise over White Sands this morning.  We broke camp early and hiked back to the truck.  We met some other folks in the parking lot also on Spring Break from Tucson, AZ.  They recommended Karchner Caverns near Tucson.  We’ve had several people recommend this place.  

Today we’re heading for Silver City, NM, just outside of the Gila (HEE-la) Wilderness.  It’s Andrew’s birthday and it’s hard to think of something special to do when you’re already on a great and wonderful adventure!  We stopped at visitor information in Silver City and  found an inexpensive motel called the Grey Feathers Lodge and called for reservations.  While looking for a restaurant and internet cafe for a Wi-Fi connection, we found the Silver City Brewing Company and an internet cafe called Rejuvenate, both in the nearby downtown.  Our plans were made.  

After checking email at Rejuvenate, we went down a few blocks to the Silver City Brewing Co. for a pizza and beer.  We liked the beer so much, we got a growler to go.  A growler is a half gallon bottle of tap beer, not always available in some states or counties.  But it’s available in New Mexico and we took one back to where we were staying.  Now for a relaxing shower and a birthday evening. 

This morning several campers left the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site early.  We talked to another camper, Jim Courts, who is a retired park superintendent for the Custer Battlefield Park (his last park) and has worked at or visited most of the national parks and national monuments.  We talked to him a bit on the best parks to see and where to go that’s “off the beaten path” so to speak.   

We toured the petroglyphs, rock art that’s scratched into the stone by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.  This is the largest collection of petroglyphs I’ve ever seen!  There are over 20,000 documented petroglyphs in about a 1 to 1 1/2 mile area of ridgeline!  Wow!  We took the short 1 1/2 mile hike out to the end of the ridge, snapping photos and taking some videos.  

We hated to leave, but we had to get to White Sands for a backpack tonight.  We got to White Sands and re-encountered Spring Break!  Lots of people, but only 2 other backpacker groups, so they have eight sites still open.  The furthest site is a little over a mile and the closest one is 3/4 mile from the parking lot.  The two furthest ones were taken, so we chose the closest one, site number 10.  All the sites are pretty much the same, it’s not like one has a better tree on it or anything… it’s all sand.  Since we have such a short hike and we’re really out there to experience a night in the solitude of the white sands, we cooked dinner at the truck before going out and planned on hiking back to the truck for breakfast.  Since we weren’t eating, we didn’t need to bring a cook kit or stove or dinner foods.  We just brought some snack bars and lots of water (and a little bit of wine [contraband]), our sleeping bags and a tent.  We met up with some folks from Phoenix, Arizona, Ben and Anna, that were backpacking out with their little Pomeranian, Bear.  This little dog had a big dog attitude.  We hiked and chatted with them for a while until we came to our site and said good-bye.  We got to our site just as the sun was setting.  Lots of clouds made for a colorful sunset, but we are supposed to have a full moon.  We hope some of the clouds move out during the night.  The only lights we see are from the city of Alamogordo.  Early evening, we saw and heard several planes flying maneuvers overhead.  Holloman Air Force Base is next to the dunes.  It’s kind of cool watching them flying in the dark.  

We slept in a bit this morning.  We went to the Frijole Ranch again and did a 2.3 mile loop trail there to a couple of springs that gave life to the ranch and this area.  We stayed there and had lunch at a picnic table, then headed out for White Sands National Monument for an overnight backpack with a full moon.  

Texas has hundreds of miles of highway with nothing… no buildings, no stores, no rest areas.  They have a few picnic areas with no facilities, but no restrooms.  After driving for a couple of hours without seeing anything.  I stopped at a store/restaurant for a pit stop.  The friendly folks there had a big sign out front that said “This is not a rest area.  Water is expensive out here.  Restrooms are for customers only”.  With such a warm greeting like that, I didn’t even want to walk into their place!  I didn’t know what they had, but I didn’t want it!  We stopped on the side of the road and took care of things.  

We stopped in El Paso, TX at a Wal-Mart (shudder) to find a new Pur water filter.  Our other one blew off the truck in the wind and cracked.  They didn’t have the model we wanted, but we got one that would work.  

We’re heading toward Three Rivers Petroglyph Site north of Tularosa, NM.  We stopped on the way through Alamogordo at a truck stop and had the best $5.00 shower we’ve had in weeks.  We also stopped by a restaurant that we had eaten at before, years ago, but it had changed hands now.  When we came thru in 2002 (?) and ate at a place called Chef Lupe’s and the food was sooo good, but so spicy that Andrew couldn’t eat his.  It was partially his own fault, he ordered “Camerones ala Diablo” or “Shrimp of the Devil”.  According to our waitress, Chef Lupe’s is now in Ruidoso.  The restaurant here is now called “La Hacienda” and the food was really good and not too expensive.  I’d recommend it to anyone passing thru the area.  

After dinner, we continued to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site.  They have a BLM campground there that charges just $2.00 per night.  When we got there, we found out our Golden Eagle Parks Pass gets us camping here for free!  There are lots of spots open, so we found a flat spot and crawl in the back for the night.   

We got an early start this morning, we’re hiking to the top of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.  We headed out before daybreak and got to the park shortly after.  We were among the first ones on the trail, although we were hiking rather slowly.  There were a few spots on the trail where the exposure gave me the heebie-jeebies.  We were passed by a few people, among them, a guy from France we stopped and talked with for a minute.  When we got to the top we had it to ourselves… for a minute.  It’s Spring Break and soon we had a crowd on the peak, maybe 14-16 people.  At the top, we talked with an older guy who has hiked a lot of the 14ers in Colorado and told us many of them were walk up trails like this one, not requiring special equipment.  We started down and passed lots more people on the way up.  Spring Break, too many people!  On the way down, we talked to some volunteers that were helping out with geological research, cataloging fossils along the trail.  Near the bottom of the mountain, we saw the last adult with a scout troop (there were lots of scout troops out too!) who was heading up to the peak with an aluminum lawn chair strapped on his pack.  They were from Denton, TX.  When we asked about his chair, he said the rocks just didn’t fit his… you know.  He left it at that.   We finished our hike and headed off to the city of Carlsbad for a Chinese Buffet and pigged out!

We got back to our campsite and noticed two other trucks heading down the bumpy dirt road.  We’ve been here three days and haven’t seen anyone, although we talked to a hiker on the trail and they said the rangers at Carlsbad Caverns were sending people to camp on BLM land at MM 5.  One morning we saw maybe three or four vehicles leaving at MM5.  The first truck coming down the road was a couple of guys (on Spring Break) that were looking for a place to camp.  We pointed them to another camp site near the caves here.  The other truck was the rancher tending to his cows that were grazing here and just showing the guys where to camp.  Our private little spot at MM10 was getting crowded, but we’ve been in one place long enough, time to move on. 

We went into Guadalupe Visitor Center and yesterday’s wind at Guad. pass was 35-80mph.  They were suggesting people not hike to the peak that day.  The wind was still pretty strong today, but was expected to ease up tomorrow.  So we decided on a canyon hike called the Devil’s Hall.  It had several cool formations, including a natural formation called the “Hiker’s Staircase”  It was a 4.2 mile hike round trip.  

We stopped by Frijole Ranch, a historic set of buildings that used to be a single family home, a ranch and a community center including a post office, a school house and a location for dances and other rural activities.  We talked to the volunteer working there, Maureen Bigelow, and she and her husband are heading to Natural Bridges National Mon. and we might see them there in April.

We’re going to be in the area for a couple of days, so we checkout the area of BLM in the daylight for a good spot at Mile marker 10.  We found an area of several small caves on BLM land that has a few campsites designated.  It’s well off the road and looks great.  This is home for the next few nights. 

We drove into Carlsbad to do a little shopping and then to Carlsbad Caverns.  We were going to hike to the top of Guadalupe Peak, but the wind is really strong, making it hard just to walk through the parking lot at the Caverns.  It’s Spring Break and the Caverns are packed!  3,000 people, the ranger told us.  I took some video, but I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out.  We stayed at the Caverns until closing then went back to out campsite at MM 10.  

This morning, as we were making breakfast, the van that stayed with us pulled back in.  He left about 4 am.  He ‘s a volunteer with McDonald Observatory and was helping out with there special programs during Spring Break.  They have a “Star Party” where you can look through different telescopes of different sizes.  We thought it would be cool to do, but at $15.00 per person, we decided to spend our money elsewhere.  He did show us an unusual rock formation he photographed in Big Bend on The Lost Mine trail.  It looks like a face and head, from the shoulders up.  We’ll have to look for it next time we’re in Big Bend.  He joked about sending it to The Star or National Enquirer.  

We went into Davis Mountain SP and did a 5 mile hike in strong winds.  We then took a nice, ling, hot shower.  Ahhh…..  We moved on to Ft Davis National Monument, an old frontier fort from 1880’s that housed the “Buffalo Soldiers”, black troops that the Native Americans named because of the wiry hair like a buffalo. They are restoring some of the adobe and stone buildings and refurbishing them with period furniture and reproductions of period military equipment.  We saw the enlisted men’s barrack’s and the hospital.  It’s amazing anyone survived the hospital!   

We headed north to Guadalupe Mtn SP and the Texas/ New Mexico border.  In New Mexico, we found some BLM land to stop for the night.  We were both pretty tired.

We had to go through Border Patrol again to get from our camp into Alpine.  This guy really looked into the back of the truck, others just asked us if we were US citizens and waved us on.  Andrew gets nervous going through Border Patrol, but I figure, what are they going to do… deport us back to Atlanta?

In Alpine, we worked some at the library and then pulled the truck in back of La Trattoria and used the Wi-Fi access to upload photos.  I guess this is what we’ll be doing on our “down days” from hiking.  

We drove out to Ft Davis/ Davis Mountain SP to check out cost and camping availability.  Much of their campground is full, but there’s free camping right outside the park, so that’s what we took.  We’ll go into the park tomorrow for day use and grab a shower.  

After our dinner at the picnic area, we get into bed.  Just as we were falling asleep, a van pulled in behind us.  We watched as he jumped into the back to sleep.  No problem, we’ll share our spot for the night.  Maybe 15 minutes later, 3 trucks pulled up next to us.   We had apparently taken the local boys’ party place.  They drove off and honked the horn just in case we were sleeping.  We were kind of glad to have our quiet neighbor with us.