Gone with the Wind Fabulous
NP Roadtrip – Days 30 – 33
New Mexico – Gila Cliff Dwellings – Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Carlsbad Caverns National Park – White Sands National Monument
We rolled into the Silver City KOA early enough to enjoy a quick trip to a local brewery during the daylight hours and come back to our site to do a champagne cheers to 30 days on the road and our first shower in 3 days. We broke out the Yahtzee, had leftovers for dinner, and let loose! What a fun night in our little trailer. We celebrate everything. Big and small. It’s important to celebrate awesome things, because not every day is a good day. Living in tiny quarters means giving up a little of yourself to accommodate others. We make sacrifices every single day and so when we have a “win” we wholeheartedly join in and celebrate!
First shower in 3 days and day 30 on the road!!
The following morning, we woke up before the sun came up so we could drive to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument right at opening time and make it back to our campsite before checkout. We were the first people on the trail, which had its ups and downs. Of course when it’s empty you don’t have anyone else in the background of your pictures, you can wander and linger around the dwellings, and you can generally just take your time enjoying the view. Gila Cliff Dwelling is really secluded at the end of a really curvy, slow moving road. The rangers that work out here probably don’t see a whole lot of civilization, except for each other. So when you are the only 2 tourists out to view the dwelling mid-week, you may get stuck in a few LONG conversations with these poor, exceptionally bored folks. One ranger may even take the exit path up to the dwellings and surprise you up there, then proceed to bombard you with questions about your car and home state (that he’s checked out while you were on the longer trail), tell you approximately 20 places to camp in Texas that aren’t National Park Service sites so he kept whispering them under his breath and looking around like he was going to get caught, and/or interrogate you on where we stayed since he didn’t spot any teardrop trailers in the campsites on his drive in from his own campsite. Wow! He was lonely. But then he mentioned he had a girlfriend with a teardrop trailer who we assumed was the ranger that bombarded us with more questions at the bottom of the trail. Two bored rangers found each other. A match made in Gila.
Gila Cliff Dwellings.
Gila Cliff Dwellings
Overall Gila Cliffs was awesome! There is a short hike, steep in some places, up to the dwellings and, unlike some other dwellings we’ve visited, you can actually go in about 3-4 of the 6 or 7 dwellings. You can climb up and down the frail looking ladders, just as the Mogollon people did. Word to the wise, though, we do not recommend bringing a trailer on the road from Silver City. I think it’s something like 45 miles, but in a regular car takes about 1.5 hours. In a trailer, it would be even longer, and not even realistic. We left ours safe in Silver City for collection after our visit.
After packing up in Silver City, we headed to Las Cruces. We had another early morning so we made an easy dinner of sausages, lentils, and squash. The lentils in a bag from Costco are such an easy side dish with any kind of meat. We have a box for emergency “easy” meals just in case. I easily heat them up in their own bag in a pot of boiling water. Dinner was served in less than 15 minutes.
Our first stop the next day was Guadalupe Mountains National Park, one of the best examples of a fossil reef from the Permian Era. While pretty, it’s definitely not in my top 10, or even 30 National Parks. In Guadalupe’s defense, we were on an epic day-long trip visiting 2 parks and 1 monument, so we didn’t really have time to linger either. Plus, and it’s a big one, the WIND was CRAZY! It was so crazy you could have lost a limb if you didn’t hold the car door with both hands and brace it with your entire body. Not a fun day to drive (thanks G) and not a fun day to hike. We motored over to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which was the place that started it all. This is where the idea of a National Park road trip came from. Since we had just visited Carlsbad the previous year, and were lucky enough to go while the elevators were not operating, we opted to take the elevator in and out of the caves this time. From the top to bottom it took all of 10 seconds, or so, and is about 750 feet down, which was luxurious considering that same trek took us about 1.5 hour round trip the last time. If you have the opportunity, the energy, and the knees, I would highly recommend the longer route, rather than utilizing the elevator. There is absolutely no comparison. One more thing about the caverns that is worth noting, they have a dog kennel for a nominal fee, though if it’s 75 degrees or cooler, you can leave the dogs in the car. It was windy and cool the day we were there and our dogs prefer lounging in the car in their own beds and blankets over being in a cage any day. So, we left them in the car for the hour or so we took to tour the Big Room.
The concessionaire in the Caverns, 750 feet below the surface. Weird and cool.
Cavern restrooms.
As you leave Carlsbad Caverns, there is a little store outside of the park near the motel and campground areas. Lots of interesting souvenirs to waste your money on, but they also have an awesome snack selection. Armed with our drumstick ice creams, we got back in the car to head to our final destination for the day, White Sands National Monument.
I am so glad we didn’t have the trailer hitched up, because these winds were gnarly and getting stronger by the minute. To get to White Sands from Carlsbad you go through a lot of flat and mostly ugly desert stuff (so nothing to protect you from the winds), but you also get to go through the beautiful mountain area just east of Alamagordo (where we got some reprieve from the wind. We were racing to get there with enough time to play in the sand, take pictures at sunset, and get out of the park by their 7 pm closing time. We had heard from some buddies we met on the road that we had to get sleds for the dunes, so we stopped at the gift shop to buy a few. In hindsight, I would recommend only getting one sled for 2 people unless you are going to be there for several days. They are fairly expensive, but (if available) they sell used ones and will also sell you a square of wax for your board. G mostly took pictures while I feebly tried to get my board to move in the sand. It was a lesson in patience, humility, and gravity. First of all, White Sands is absolutely beautiful. I have never seen anything like it in my entire life and all four of us loved it. I just wish the dunes weren’t blowing sand in my face, through my clothes, in my MOUTH at a rate of 40 miles per hour with some gusts much stronger than that. The sled is tricky. I’m not sure I was doing it right, or maybe it’s more for kids, or maybe I needed more wax, I’m not sure. I literally had to shimmy down the hills. And it takes a lot of effort to walk up these tall hills of gypsum sand. Literally a one step forward two steps back type of sitch. Ugh. We took a million pictures, but one of my favorites is at the bottom of one of the dunes where I literally give up. I had sand everywhere (I’m still finding sand in clothes weeks later after two turns in the washer). I couldn’t get the board (or rather gravity) to work in my favor, and G snapped this photo. Haha! I promise I was still smiling even though I didn’t want to look up!
Attempting "sledding". I was born in Alaska. This is not sledding, but at least I tried. And I had fun doing it!
Accepting defeat.
Lastly, even though it’s against the rules (and I am generally an UBER rule follower), the dogs love stuff like this and there was absolutely no one around, so we let them off the leash. Shhhhhh! They went wild! I haven’t seen them that happy the entire trip and it was so gratifying to watch them play and frolic in the sand, following G to the tops of the dunes, then darting over to me at the bottom. Both of them even took a turn on the sled with me. The sand started to bug them too, but they kept running wildly around, playing and being scrappy until the sun went down.
We pulled into Las Cruces around 8:15 pm, exhausted, hungry, and requiring either a beer or a margarita. Sand will do that to you! We picked the restaurant because their Yelp page showed a picture of a beer, but we were skunked. No beer. No wine. And no…Margaritas. No Bueno. I hate to admit this, but we shared an appetizer and left to go to another spot for dinner. Si Señor was around the corner from the other place, they offer a full bar, and I was huge so we got seated right away. The funny thing, though, is that both of us were so tired that we didn’t even finish our drinks, or our food. New Mexico kicked our butts, but we did it to ourselves. We have a new commitment to NOT go to 3 major parks or monuments in one day that require that much driving and effort. And also another new commitment that if margaritas are a priority, we call ahead to confirm. Ok, maybe not the second one, but it was a lesson learned. Salud!
