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Balmorhea State Park

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Feb 112010

I got up early this morning to leave Alamogordo, NM and head to Corpus Christi, TX. A storm moved through last night and there was a chance of snow. When I looked out the window I seen nice blue skies and brown ground. Perfect! Snow was limited to elevations over 6,000 feet and Alamogordo is at 4,000 feet so we just got a bit of rain.

I got a couple of miles down the road and traffic was backed up. I looked down between the lanes and seen a helicopter in the road. There was an accident and they were evacuating someone. The delay was only about 10 minutes and I was on my way. The first part of the trip was south and once I hit El Paso I headed east. Continue reading »

Day of Rest

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Feb 102010

Didn't do much today. I'm pretty burned out on driving so just decided to hang out a bit. I went over to the Space History Museum today. It was pretty cool as they had a lot of stuff from the space program. Only took about an hour to go through. I then gassed up and am now getting ready to leave in the morning for Padre Island.

I was going to head to Tuscon but then decided to slowly work my way back east. I've been moving a lot over the past few weeks and just want to take it easy for the next few weeks before I head back home in earnest. I picked the Corpus Christi area to spend some time and did a search for campgrounds. I really liked the beach when I went to South Padre Island and wanted someplace close to the Gulf. And after watching Spuddy run around at White Sands and remember how he liked walking the beach at South Padre I just had to find a place close to the water. Continue reading »

Valley of Fires & White Sands

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Feb 092010

I took a couple of outings today to see the sights. First stop was the Valley of Fires Recreation Area near Carrizozo, New Mexico. The Valley of Fire is a large lava field that was created 1000 to 1500 years ago. Surprisingly the southern edge of the lava field is only 14 miles from the northern edge of White Sands. The trip north to get there took about an hour. The site is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and is not a county, state or national park. When you enter the park you stop at the payment station, stuff $3 in an envelope and enter.

There is a small bookstore near the walking path plus a picnic and tent camping area. The walking path that takes you through the lava field was made to be handicap accessible so it is an easy 1 mile walk (or roll if in a wheelchair). There are a few spots on the path where you can get off and actually walk on the lava. It's a nice interesting spot to stop at considering that there is this lava in the middle of the high desert. Continue reading »

Carlsbad Caverns

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Feb 072010

This morning I headed out to Carlsbad Caverns. The morning was cool, damp and foggy. It took about 45 minutes to get there as I am currently just north of Carlsbad. Plus there is construction on the road to the caverns south of Carlsbad where they are adding two more lanes to the two lane highway.

When I got to the caverns I decided just to do the self guided tours. The first one take you into the natural opening of the cave using a steep winding paved walkway. In some places it is a 20 degree angle you are walking down. This part took about 1 1/2 hours to walk and you end up in the big room of the cavern 750 feet below the surface.

The bathrooms were closed in the rest area so I had to take the elevator up to wizz then go back down the elevator to take the big room self guided tour. While I was up top I stopped in the restaurant for a bite to eat. Back down I went to finish the big room tour. Continue reading »