Category: RV TRIP 2021

Carlsbad Caverns is totally worth a visit! I could list all kinds of adjectives for this enormous cave but you just need to see it. We arrived for our timed entry and skipped the elevator to walk down the trail — a mile and a quarter long, dimly lit, damp, with switchbacks 80 stories down into the earth! That alone was pretty amazing. Everyone has to take to the elevator to exit, but the self guided audio players had lots of great info the entire walk down. Once you’re in the cavern there’s another mile+ loop around the “Big Room,” aptly named. We learned this is not the longest, deepest or biggest cave, but it is incredible! Maddy thought Luray Caverns was more beautiful with its stalactites and stalagmites everywhere you looked, but the sheer scale of this cavern is beyond impressive. Biggest surprise: there’s a gift shop, snack bar, and restroom facilities 700ft underground!

So I know I’ve raved about the Jr. Ranger program before, but it’s not just a cool badge, it’s the difference between walking through a park with some oohs and ahhs and really learning about what you’re looking at and what makes it so special. Yes, the activities are often pretty easy like word searches and crosswords, but you’re still learning.

I’m so grateful, again, that we’re making this trip THIS year with my kids still young enough to participate. Maddy already feels like she’s too old for some of it, but you can see her secretly enjoying the activities. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want the badge you earn?

Best part of today’s ranger program was talking to 3 different rangers at the park. These people LOVE their jobs. One even has “Batmom” as her license plate. The last ranger, Anthony, was our favorite and even though we were all starving for lunch by this point, all of us kept asking more questions! He loved the girls’ interest and even gave them an extra poster. Our favorite conversation with him was all about the Lechuguilla Cave which is part of CCNP, but not accessible to the public. The photos he shared are incredible and knowing so much underground wilderness is still being explored that may never become accessible to the public makes you appreciate the caves you can see even more.

One of my favorite parts of today’s audio tour was hearing from such a huge range of professionals: park rangers, cave specialists, paleo-botanists (studying plants of the past), microbiologists, hydrologists, geologists… it was all very interesting. We all enjoyed this park and would highly recommend it to anyone. Now lunch and siesta!

Carlsbad Caverns are located under the Guadalupe Mountain Range and the Guadalupe Mountain National Park Visitor Center is only 30 minutes from the campground, so late afternoon we decided to check it out. Back to Texas we go! National Park #7, 5th of the trip. This is a much less visited park, and we saw very few people.

Like always, we asked for the Jr. Ranger Program (I am surprised it’s never offered, we always have to ask for it) and this particular ranger was way less enthusiastic about it all. He gave us the books and the pins – usually you have to show you completed everything, they make you do a pledge to protect the parks and nature and THEN they give you the badges! Not only was he less informative, the booklet itself was pretty small and the requirements for this park were: complete 6 pages or just take a hike. So we mapped out the hike we plan to do the next morning.

We all had fun checking out the local wildlife in the visitor center because they were all stuffed — so many snakes! I definitely DON’T want to see any of the wildlife here in the wild. We picked out our souvenirs – Mat gets a tacky magnet for the fridge, I get a Christmas ornament (we’re going to need a bigger xmas tree!), Emmy picks a key chain and Maddy collects the free maps and a sticker for her trunk.

When we left the visitor center the kids were NOT interested in a nature walk around the center (it was less than a mile!), they were done with the sun and done with this park. So, I may have threatened to return their souvenirs and told them they could buy them on amazon if they didn’t want to actually experience the park. They agreed to a short walk. We did learn that one thing that makes this area special is there was a mail route from St. Louis, MO to California, instead of sailing it around South America, before the Pony Express. They could make the trip in 25 days!

The kids also agreed to explore Frijole Ranch, which is a history museum in the park that requires little walking. Well, it was a bust since it was closed for renovations, so kids won out and we went home for a movie and ice cream with Murphy. They were right – much more fun. To be fair to the kids, we don’t have to love everything, and we have yet to find something here that really interests us. But we’ll be back tomorrow to try again.

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Drove 99 more miles across Texas early today to arrive at Monahan Sandhills State Park before the hot sun. We have been excited for this state park because they let you sled down the dunes! They rent the sleds, sell wax, give you tips on sledding techniques (um… we’re from NH, we got this!), and then say “you can go anywhere you want in the sand dunes, just don’t forget how to get back to your car.” So we left the AC running for Murphy while we explored the dunes and had a blast sledding. The fun was balanced pretty equally with work… you go down, but then you have to come back up! I was a little worried about getting exercise with all the RV driving, but when every step you take up is in sand rushing down the dune you don’t get far fast, LOL. We played, got filthy, showered in the outdoor showers, worked up an appetite for an early lunch… luckily we have an RV in the parking lot for clean, dry clothes and a hot lunch! So much fun. Reminded us of our amazing summer in Africa 4 years ago, but in west Texas.

Then more driving. More oil. Just google Permian Basin oil boom to get a sense of our surroundings. Everything was so industrial and semi-permanent looking, and flat! And RV parks everywhere, but not the kind vacationers want. And medians on the highway are merely a suggestion here — trucks that don’t like the highway just drive right off to the frontage road, right over the medians. And we saw a huge highway sign that read “hitchhikers may be escaped convicts”. Nice. After a few more hours crossing Texas, we finally made it to Whites City, NM. We are definitely back in tourist territory with not 1, but 2 national parks within 30 minutes of here. We set up camp — twice (to get better shade and a flatter spot) — and then headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park (minutes away) for the evening Bat Flight Program at sunset. Our 6th national park and 4th of the trip! We listened to a ranger program, sitting in the beautiful outdoor amphitheater, all about the resident bats right up until the stars of the show started leaving the cavern. We witnessed hundreds of thousands of bats fly out of the cave for their evening feeding. It was quite a spectacular sight. And we learned this is how they originally found the cave! Can’t wait to come back tomorrow and head down INTO the cave (with the hundreds of thousands of bats that return every morning!)

We had a great first night in New Mexico and an awesome thunder storm to make us feel cozy in the camper during the night. We were able to watch the lightning light up the desert sky from our bedroom window, another incredible memory. Saturday, July 24, 2021

Today we visited our 5th National Park as a family, 3rd of the trip. We had no idea what to expect and for good reason… it’s hard to explain this place. In one word Maddy called it: different, Emmy called it: boring, Mat called it: unique, and I called it: strange. So what did the USA decide to protect and make a national park 100 years ago (it’s the centennial anniversary this year)? The hot springs mineral water that was thought to have rejuvenating and healing properties, and the bathhouses built over it as a means to provide access to the people. When I think of national parks I think of the first, Yellowstone, and the Roosevelt Arch with the words “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People” so I get that they wanted to protect this area because of its special history as a precious resource. It was actually named a a federal reservation way back in 1832 before Arkansas even became a state. My problem with this park and the notion that it was protected ‘for the enjoyment of the people’ is that the government covered almost all access to the spring water under green concrete locked boxes and routed all the water to bathhouses that for a time only white people were allowed to access at a fee that attracted the wealthy. Today, 8 bathhouses stand along Bathhouse Row, and only 2 are actually bathhouses: the Buckstaff (the ONLY one that has operated continuously from 1912) and the Quapaw Bathhouse (re-opened in 2007). The only way to access the spring water today is to make an appointment (by phone or in person only) for fancy spa treatments at one of these 2 houses and they book very fast! The Quapaw has a “public mineral pool” that you can pay $20 a person to sit in, but that has very limited space due to Covid, and no one under 14 is allowed! So I found the whole experience ironic… the land was protected so the mineral water could be accessed by all for future generations and it’s nearly impossible to actually access! Which is why I think Emerson’s assessment of “boring” is fair, especially being under 14. The other bathhouses have since been turned into other things: one’s the National Park Visitor Center, one’s a cultural center housing art works, one’s a gift shop, one’s a boutique hotel, one is a brewery that makes it’s beer and homemade root beer from the spring water (that was a good stop but avoid the dill pickle beer!) and one is still empty. In the spirit of protecting a resource that promoted health and wellness they also protected the land around the town with 26 miles of trails, making this the 2nd smallest National Park.

Despite the above review, we definitely found the fun. This was probably the best Jr. Ranger program because it did get the kids involved in a park that otherwise had limited activities for them. They had fun running up and down Bathhouse Row matching pictures of architecture to the right houses, looking for certain stained glass windows in the Fordyce Bathhouse museum, filling water bottles from the fountains with the hot spring water (so they did get to taste it even though they couldn’t soak anywhere). They worked hard for their pins under the hot Arkansas sun! Speaking of the Fordyce Museum: it was BIZARRE to walk through the old, preserved bathhouse that peaked in 1947. It had a feel of luxury with all the porcelain, marble and stained glass, but it also had the feel of a horror movie and asylums of the past as it felt sterile and abandoned! The various spa technologies and primitive exercise machines were interesting (esp. for this OT) but also resembled torture devices! Then again, the town is known for attracting MANY gangsters. They even have a Gangster Museum to celebrate their colorful history. Randomly, this place also attracted baseball players so you can take a walking tour to various spots significant to baseball history.

Our favorite bathhouse was Superior Bathhouse, home of the brewery. We had a fun lunch, sampled locals beers (one was pickled flavored and the videos of Mat and I trying it are pretty funny!). After exploring the national park sites in town we ventured to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower for views of the town and Ouachita Mountains. While I’m sure the trails offer a beautiful views of wooded park, it was WAY TOO HOT to hike so we drove up to the scenic lookouts.

The heat eventually chased us back to the pool and we never ventured back out even though Garvan Woodland Gardens was high on my to do list. The air-conditioned RV, games and quiet family time won out. Perfect. All in all it was a great day and I’m really glad we experienced Hot Springs National Park!

Wednesday, July 21st, 2021