First Week in New Mexico

The Land of Enchantment has certainly enchanted us our first week at Elephant Butte State Park and perhaps has provided the  most epic campsite of our travels. It’s our first site where other people in the campground have come by to write down site 18 so they can reserve it next time they come to this park. It sits on a small bluff over looking the lake with a clear view of sunrise and sunset every day. We have loved biking the trail adjacent to the campground, hiking in the Black Range mountains of The Gila National Forest and relaxing at the natural hot springs in nearby Hot Springs, NM.

Learning to ride in sand 

Hot Springs 

Last Week in Texas

There wasn’t a real rush to get on the road because we only had about 100 miles to go to our final stop in Texas: Davis Mountains State Park. We thought we would only get to stay 3 nights but when we checked in there had been a cancellation so we booked a site for the whole week. There is so much to do in this area so we were pleased with our good luck. The high points of our stay here: Attending a “star party “ at McDonald Observatory (we had a clear night and learned so much) Touring Fort Davis and the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center ( both have beautiful hiking trails and amazing desert plants in bloom  not to mention abundant wildlife). At the nature center we saw four Javelina on our hike there. This state park is a CCC Park which we’ve decided are almost always exceptional places to stay.

Fort Davis 

 Hedgehog Cactus & Texas Laurel

Yucca, Ocotillo & Prickley Pear

Terlingua

A real bonus to staying in Terlingua was being close to Terlingua Ghost Town, Cemetery and the Starlight Theatre. We celebrated my birthday early at this cool restaurant/theatre sampling their world famous chili and delicious entrees.

 

Terlingua Ghost Town Cemetery sunset 

Our last hike in Big Bend required traveling 7 miles on one of the dirt roads that are spread throughout  the park to see Balance Rock. Mark loved getting “off road “ in his truck to get to a few  out of the way spots in this beautiful park.

Marfa

We decided to take a break from biking and hiking and explore the surrounding area.I’d read a lot about the tiny town of Marfa so we decided to take a day to check it out. We timed our travels to arrive between 12:00 and 3:00 so we could get lunch at a food truck called Food Shark. The Mediterranean food plate we got lived up to the hype and the falafel’s were the best I’ve ever had. Next,we went to see minimalist artist, Donald Judd’s untitled concrete boxes that are spread out over two acres and are the first installation he created when he moved to this small Texas town in the 1970’s. From what I can tell, minimalist’s try to form objects/art free from emotion. However, Judd’s concrete boxes, randomly spaced on the Chihahuan desert floor made me feel lonesome...almost like an Edward Hopper painting. We arrived too late to see any of his other installations so we headed to the even tinier town of Valentine to see Prada, Marfa. It was created over a decade ago by two artists as a sort of Pop Architecture piece that speaks to art, fashion and capitalism. Probably the best way to describe Marfa; the only radio station you can pick up there is NPR.

I 

Switching gears, we traveled back to Marfa and enjoyed happy hour at The Hotel Paisano that served as the headquarters for the film crew of the 1956 movie Giant. We were exhausted by the time we made it back to our campsite but loved our day of visiting all these places we’ve read about in fellow traveler’s blogs.

Not so Dog Friendly

The way we handle hiking in National Parks that don’t  allow dogs on the trails:  We take turns hiking. One of us stays at a trailhead, with the dog, and then we switch up at the next trailhead. We have loved that our campsite is situated between Big Bend and Big Bend Ranch State Park because the state park has two really cool trails that are dog friendly; the HooDoo Trail and the Closed Canyon Trail. Starbaby loves the views!

We also discovered an epic mountain bike trail system in the state park that was as much fun as any trail we’ve ridden in our travels. It was technical and rewarded you with amazing vistas.

Markie waiting his turn to hike

Biking with Horses 

Big Bend National Park

Santa Elena Canyon 

We got an early start and completed the last leg to Big Bend National Park. We are staying in the town of Terlingua in our second private park. I was a bit worried, when we drove up, because the park (Big Bend Resort & Adventures RV Park) is kind  of like a gravel pit with hook-ups, but the views are wonderful, and Big Bend is so large, we will be gone most days exploring and hiking in the area anyway. Our first day, we got up early and had the Santa Elena Canyon all to ourselves for a beautiful sunrise over the Rio Grande and the coolest hike up the canyon. What a great start to our week in this beautiful park.

View from the gravel pit

The Caverns of Sonora

We got an early start, on our trek to Big Bend, but had decided to stop halfway, for a couple nights, at a private park (our first) connected to the Caverns of Sonora. The Caverns are a National Natural Landmark and we loved this unique and beautiful cave! The founder of the National Speleological Society said of the cave after his first visit, “This is the most indescribably beautiful cave in the world. It’s beauty cannot be exaggerated, not even by a Texan.”

Texas Hill Country

We loved our stay in the Texas hill country. McKinney Falls State Park was full of surprises. The entrance is just a few miles from downtown Austin, yet we felt like we were out in the wilderness. The other interesting thing we discovered was a favorite show of ours, called The Leftovers, shot some scenes for the series, at the Upper Falls, in the park.

We couldn’t explore the city as much as we wanted because we didn’t realize SXSW was starting the week we were there. We did have delicious Texas brisket and BBQ at Salt Licks BBQ, in Driftwood, and made a day trip to Perdenales Falls State Park to do some hiking and experience more of the hill country. It’s a really cool park, too, about 40 miles west of Austin.

Salt Licks BBQ

Cooling off at Perdenales Falls

Loving Texas

There are so many things we are enjoying about Texas. For one thing, many of the state park hiking trails are multi purpose so we have loved hiking and biking without leaving the park. We also continue to have great timing with the weather with temps in the 70’s and low humidity so our clothes line dries all our gear in less than an hour. (I don’t believe our towels ever got completely dry in Louisiana). I’ve also loved the stereotypical “Texas” things that are all new to me. The beautiful giant live oak trees, cacti and blue bonnets and my first armadillo!

The Lone Star State

We crossed into Texas and stopped for lunch at the I 10 welcome center. I am excited about exploring a small sliver of this huge state. First stop: Martin Dies, Jr State Park. State Parks in Texas allow you to make reservations but you pick out your campsite once you arrive. We got an amazing spot right on the river (308). Another cool thing we discovered about Texas parks; you can fish for free if you cast from the shore. Mark got a fishing pole, when we bought our camper, but hadn’t used it till now. He was so excited to catch his first fish of retirement. As a footnote: while fishing one day, a baby alligator swam right up to Mark’s bobber. Supposedly, they scare the fish away, but we were excited to see the little guy.

Not everything in Texas is bigger!

Back to Louisiana

So far, our timing has been perfect on this trip. We arrived back in Louisiana, for a short stay at Tickfaw State Park, and our reserved campsite was one of the few unflooded ones. It was also very secluded, so after a very social two weeks, in FL, we enjoyed the solitude. The river continued to rise, the four days we were there, and as we packed to leave, our fire pit disappeared under the water.

The moon was so bright, on our last night, we were able to load our bikes up with out using a flashlight.