Hello Again,
We've made it to Albuquerque and we're so happy to be here. It has been a crazy week of hot and windy weather and we're spending tonight in a proper bed!
We left Austin for a seven hour jaunt across southern Texas to Big Bend NP. The park is on the Mexico border along the Rio Grande. The river is more like a stream, however, and we weren't able to raft. We weren't able to do much, actually. They are having a bad drought all throughout the southwest, as you may have heard. It's really hot and really dry. It's in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert. It was 105 when we showed up at 6pm. Luckily our camp site was on the top of a mountain at about 5,500 feet, so it cooled off to about 65 at night. The heat didn't keep us awake, the wind did. It gusted 30-40 mph both nights we were there. We could literally use one side of the tent as a blanket.
Besides that, everything was great! Seriously though, Big Bend is a beautiful place. The mountains are gorgeous and the canyons formed by the river are dramatic. We did manage to hike about 6.5 miles but had to wait until early evening to do it. We would definitely go back, but definitely not during the summer.
We drove north to the border of New Mexico to Guadalupe Mountains NP. It was also very hot and windy. There is a beautiful canyon there, however, that is full of deciduous trees common in the east and alpine trees common in The Rockies. This is due to water being there all year round and an elevation of almost 6,000 feet, and it was a nice treat to hike around after four days of constant desert. Shauna also had her first major breakdown of the North American portion. We bought steaks and wine and planned on having one nice dinner on our stove. The strong winds whipping through the park made it hard to cook anything well and you had to be careful of letting anything go. Before you know what's happening have your dinner could be blown away. Also, for whatever reason the flies were awful here compared to anywhere else we had been. Even with the strong gusts, flies of all shapes and sizes were attacking our meal. It was so bad at one point a fly landed on the piece of steak Shauna had cut and was about to put into her mouth. This was the straw the broke the camel's back. Shauna bursts into tears, screaming something or other to the effect that she is a "Westchester girl" and that she doesn't know a lot of girls who could handle this situation. She went to to say that if Pat knew girls that could, maybe he should marry one of them. It was five minutes of pandemonium. After Pat calmed her down with a second glass of wine and cleaning up dinner all was fine. Shauna got it out of her system and was sleeping like a baby in the tent by 9pm, even through the ridiculous wind.
We left Guadalupe Mountains and headed north to Carlsbad Caverns NP for a few hours. The biggest cave area, The Big Room, is the second largest cave in the world any visitor can go into. It's impressive. We dropped 755 feet in a minute and then hiked out of the natural entrance. There are bats everywhere, and apparently there is an impressive show every night when they come out, en masse, to gorge on bugs.
After the caverns we drove up the west side of New Mexico. We drove through the UFO capital of the world in Roswell. Aliens are welcome at the Arby's there. We also saw Billy the Kid's grave in Fort Sumner. We ended the day in Santa Rosa Lake along Route 66 with a welcome dip in the water.
The next morning we drove along Route 66 right into Albuquerque, and we're stoked to spend the next four nights with one of Pat's best friends and her husband.
Until then,
S&P
We've made it to Albuquerque and we're so happy to be here. It has been a crazy week of hot and windy weather and we're spending tonight in a proper bed!
We left Austin for a seven hour jaunt across southern Texas to Big Bend NP. The park is on the Mexico border along the Rio Grande. The river is more like a stream, however, and we weren't able to raft. We weren't able to do much, actually. They are having a bad drought all throughout the southwest, as you may have heard. It's really hot and really dry. It's in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert. It was 105 when we showed up at 6pm. Luckily our camp site was on the top of a mountain at about 5,500 feet, so it cooled off to about 65 at night. The heat didn't keep us awake, the wind did. It gusted 30-40 mph both nights we were there. We could literally use one side of the tent as a blanket.
Besides that, everything was great! Seriously though, Big Bend is a beautiful place. The mountains are gorgeous and the canyons formed by the river are dramatic. We did manage to hike about 6.5 miles but had to wait until early evening to do it. We would definitely go back, but definitely not during the summer.
We drove north to the border of New Mexico to Guadalupe Mountains NP. It was also very hot and windy. There is a beautiful canyon there, however, that is full of deciduous trees common in the east and alpine trees common in The Rockies. This is due to water being there all year round and an elevation of almost 6,000 feet, and it was a nice treat to hike around after four days of constant desert. Shauna also had her first major breakdown of the North American portion. We bought steaks and wine and planned on having one nice dinner on our stove. The strong winds whipping through the park made it hard to cook anything well and you had to be careful of letting anything go. Before you know what's happening have your dinner could be blown away. Also, for whatever reason the flies were awful here compared to anywhere else we had been. Even with the strong gusts, flies of all shapes and sizes were attacking our meal. It was so bad at one point a fly landed on the piece of steak Shauna had cut and was about to put into her mouth. This was the straw the broke the camel's back. Shauna bursts into tears, screaming something or other to the effect that she is a "Westchester girl" and that she doesn't know a lot of girls who could handle this situation. She went to to say that if Pat knew girls that could, maybe he should marry one of them. It was five minutes of pandemonium. After Pat calmed her down with a second glass of wine and cleaning up dinner all was fine. Shauna got it out of her system and was sleeping like a baby in the tent by 9pm, even through the ridiculous wind.
We left Guadalupe Mountains and headed north to Carlsbad Caverns NP for a few hours. The biggest cave area, The Big Room, is the second largest cave in the world any visitor can go into. It's impressive. We dropped 755 feet in a minute and then hiked out of the natural entrance. There are bats everywhere, and apparently there is an impressive show every night when they come out, en masse, to gorge on bugs.
After the caverns we drove up the west side of New Mexico. We drove through the UFO capital of the world in Roswell. Aliens are welcome at the Arby's there. We also saw Billy the Kid's grave in Fort Sumner. We ended the day in Santa Rosa Lake along Route 66 with a welcome dip in the water.
The next morning we drove along Route 66 right into Albuquerque, and we're stoked to spend the next four nights with one of Pat's best friends and her husband.
Until then,
S&P
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