Since this is our last summer in the US, we’re finally going on my bucket list road trip. Chandler’s planned our last two summers in the south, but this summer in the SW is all mine. We’re going to 13 national parks (that I know of), as well as a number of national forests, state parks, and Navajo tribal parks.
The irony of this trip is that neither of us is particularly adventurous. Drop us off in any city around the world and we’ll know the lay of the land by day two. But the outdoors? Let’s just say we’re definitely not campers. But the beauty of the SW is something I’ve always wanted to experience (ok, yes, and photograph!).
We thought we’d plan a rough outline and then just sort of wing it. Stay a few days here, stay a few days there. And we quickly realized you can no longer visit national parks that way. Now, tickets go on sale days, weeks, and even months in advance. Some parks require timed entrances, while others are available on a lottery basis only. And hotels? Some of those sell out a year in advance. Needless to say, a lot more effort went into planning this trip than originally anticipated.
Our first stop was Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. In fact, the whole first week was spent in New Mexico. An incredibly beautiful state with absolutely no humidity that reeked havoc on my skin and hair. Luckily, the humidity was high in the caverns (90%) and the cool temps (56° F) were a sweet relief from the New Mexico heat (it was only May!).
We had debated back and forth about how we wanted to experience the caverns. We’d read about the Natural Entrance and I was 100% for it. Chandler needed some convincing, but when he learned that it contained unique features not seen on the Big Room Trail, he jumped on board.
All that remained was deciding if we should hike down the extremely steep 1.25 mile Natural Entrance Trail before exploring the Big Room Trail and taking the elevator back to the top (recommended) or flipping the route so that we could take the elevator down to be first in the cave and then hike out the extremely steep Natural Entrance Trail (which I argued might be easier for my knees).
The decision was made for us when we arrived at the park and got in line with about 100 other people. We decided to hike down to experience the entrance of the trail as recommended since there was no way we were going to arrive first in the cave! It turned out that there’s a reason that direction of the route is recommended. The “steep” trail was incredibly manageable, but at 75 stories high it would have been brutal walking up. Plus, the rock formations were incredible. Below is one of the first photos I took just when the cave got completely dark.
There were plenty of other people on the trail with us, but honestly, the cavern is so vast that we were completely alone from time to time. Sometimes we skirted people who were taking photos and sometimes they skirted us while we were taking photos, but it was never an issue.
Some of the formations were titled, like Whale’s Mouth below, while others remained nameless. I think the path down would be too narrow for a group tour, but I could definitely see the benefits of having someone talk through the history of the cave and the significance of the formations. We did that at Longhorn Cavern State Park outside of Austin a few years ago and really enjoyed it. That said, there are definitely benefits to going at your own pace.
After about an hour we made it to the Big Room Trail – you can get here directly with an elevator ride, but I really do feel like you’d be missing out (if you’re physically capable of walking the Natural Entrance Trial).
If I’m remembering correctly, this was one of the last formations before we made it into the the Big Room – and “big” may be an understatement.
The Big Room is the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America – I’m not sure if that definition is incredibly specific or incredibly cool, but we marveled at the size of the space. There’s a 1.25 mile trail that goes around the edges with a shortcut route for those with shorter attention spans.
I was impressed by how much of the cave is wheelchair accessible, there’s a lot of equity for who has access to the cave, which isn’t always true in parks.
Hiking boots or sturdy shoes are recommended for the trek, but we found the paths to be well-maintained. Other than a few wet spots (caves drip, it’s how you get stalactites and stalagmites after all!), it was pretty easy going. We both opted to wear our running shoes and they worked just fine. We know we’ll need our heavy duty hiking boots later on during the road trip, but no need to break them out first thing!
Chandler and I watched all of the Alien (and then Predator) films a few months ago and a few of the formations seemed like they would have had H.R. Giger’s stamp of approval. I love that so many of them looked like they were melting.
I’m a sucker for stalagmites, so I couldn’t help photographing a few of those as well. The next photo was taken somewhere near the Temple of the Sun.
A few hours after we arrived we were wrapping up our time in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The park features more than 100 caves, so we barely scratched the surface, but we had a great time. PS Did you know that not only are Carlsbad Caverns a national park, but they’re also a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
Not long into our drive to Las Cruces, where we’d be spending the night, we encountered the first of our surprise national parks. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that we’d be heading to 13 national parks this summer – that I knew of when we planned the trip. But 30 minutes out of Carlsbad Caverns we found ourselves driving through Guadalupe Mountains National Park!
We didn’t have time to stop for long, but we did utilize a couple of overlooks, like this one at El Capitan. Fun fact, while El Capitan is the 10th highest peak in Texas, Guadalupe Peak (just a bit north) is Texas’ highest mountain (8,749 ft above sea level).
So honestly, two national parks down – who knows how many to go! But our summer road trip has gotten off to a great start.
Abroad With Ashley 