State(s): New Mexico
Link: https://www.nps.gov/cave/index.htm
Days: 1
Month: December
Hotel: White’s City Cavern Inn
Hikes: 2 = less than a mile (plus the cave)
National Park Visit Order: #19
Ice Cream: Ice Cream Shop
For this trip, we explored Big Bend National Park, Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River, Fort Davis National Historic Site, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and White Sands National Park. We made several other stops along the way too!
Day 1
We were planning to do this park all in one day but because of a big snow storm coming in the area, we decided to tackle the hikes one afternoon. In the morning, we were at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, then headed over to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We ended up getting 4-6 inches (within a 10 mile stretch). More about that storm can be bound here: https://texasstormchasers.com/weather/blizzard-warning-issued-for-the-guadalupe-mountains-in-far-west-texas/
This park is obviously known for the cave, but there are a couple hikes you can do too. We hiked the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Trail, an easy 0.7 mile paved trail.
Next was the Walnut Canyon Vista Overlook Trail, a very short walk from the car, about 180 yards provides a great view.
On our way out of Carlsbad Caverns, we saw a lot of Barbary sheep (Aoudad)!
Then we headed back to the hotel to clean some clothes at the laundromat across the street. Once done there, we ended up going to El Charro for dinner again. This time we had guacamole & chips. I also had the pastor tacos and Colleen has the chicken tacos. We loved this place, it was so good!
We went to the place next-door for ice cream, on the maps literally just called Ice Cream Shop. They had lots of stuff but we had no idea what most of it was; a lot of Mexican treats that looked good. We could speak ice cream though so we stuck with that. When we left, there was a sand and dust storm outside. We made a quick stop at Walmart on the way to the hotel; we picked up a few things in case we couldn’t do much the next day. It was hard to see while getting into the store as the sand was pelting our faces. Once done at Walmart, we headed to the hotel and settled in for the night.
Day 2
The next morning we woke up to around 1 or so inches of snow with more coming down. We headed to Carlsbad Caverns. We were planning to do the natural entrance but because of the weather, it was closed. We had tickets for 9:30am. We arrived at 9 and the line was already very long. They let everyone in the building so they didn’t have to stand in the snow. We were in line until 9:50am to exchange our online reservation for the green tickets to get into the cave.
The caves were very cool. They are HUGE! We went down 750 feet by elevator to kick off the adventure. It was a 1.25 mile easy paved loop.
By the time we left, the NPS road crew was very busy keeping the road plowed and sanded since they can’t pretreat or salt the road. Overall, the road was pretty clear but the snow was picking up.
We headed to Dragon China Buffet for lunch in Carlsbad. The roads were pretty good at that point but a lot of streets were flooded. It looks like they don’t have a lot sewers in that area since they don’t typically get a lot of precipitation. Most people don’t have snow brushes so people were coming up with creative ways to get snow off their cars; some were using dust pans, others towels.
Back at the hotel, we made a small snowman. It snowed 4-6 inches there (depending on the specific area) and less than an inch back at home, which was very interesting. Leave it to the #KohnEffect to be caught up in a big snow storm while in Texas and New Mexico, having more snow there than back at home in Michigan!
The next morning we continued our exploration with Day 2 of Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
