DESERT ROAD TRIP
July 2021
July 2021
We flew into El Paso on Thursday night and then picked up a car on Friday morning. After breakfast, we drove into New Mexico to White Sands National Park for the afternoon. White Sands is the largest gypsum dunefield in the world. Despite the blazing sun, the bright sand stays fairly cool the touch. Next we drove east to Carlsbad, New Mexico for the night.
Carlsbad Caverns is one of my favorite national parks, and I was excited to go back. After a hotel breakfast we drove out to the cave. We took our time and hiked in through the natural entrance. Despite the summer heat, the cave interior is 56°F all year. The enormity of the cave is impossible to describe, and we spent several hours walking around inside. Back in Carlsbad city we had a nice dinner, then returned to the park at sunset to see hundreds of thousands of bats exit the cave during the nightly bat flight.
On Sunday we woke up to pouring rain, and drove back into Texas. We made one more stop at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which includes the highest peak in the Texas. We lucked out as the rain began to clear just as we stopped at Frijole Ranch. Gray skies and low-hanging clouds made a moody setting for a hike to the Devil's Hall. Finally, we drove back to El Paso for a flight back home.
© 2021 Will Krieger