GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK/FT DAVIS STATE PARK

We left Brantley State Park and drove to Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  Not impressed in the least.  The campground is the parking lot for most of the trails, in fact all the trails except one I think - at least in the part of the park accessible from the main highway.  Crowded and very noisy with all the comings and goings.  Will not be back that is for sure.  We did enjoy the hike to Devil’s Gate though.  The trails are well marked and in good shape.  Have to do some boulder hoping as a good portion of the trail is in an arroyo.  The wind is still blowing gale force at sometimes also. 

We drove down the road and entered Texas the next morning.  It has been years since Connie and I were in this state.  In fact we left there in 1977 and this is the first time we have been back.  West Texas is west Texas.  Great cattle country and pretty mountainous.  We camped at Ft Davis State Park which is pretty big.  Did a little shopping run into Alpine to the Big Bend Saddlery and also had lunch at little Mexican restaurant or maybe I should say an early dinner.  I ate way too much and am still full tonight.  

 Zeph's first time in Texas.

Just few flowers starting to show up.

Boulders in the arroyo.

Nice views of the mountains.

Tree base at the edge of the arroyo.

Two kinds of cacti trying to live on top of this rock.

Lizards were pretty friendly.

The start of Devils gate.

Saw lots of deer.

Lots of different species of trees.

The view of west Texas when coming down the trail.

The campground.

CARLSBAD

We are camping at Brantley Lake State Park near Carlsbad, NM so spent a good part of the day at Carlsbad Caverns going through it on the self guided tour.  Pretty impressive.  The wind continues to blow and the locals say it is normal for this time of year.  Don't know how they do it. 

It is cool down in the cave with a temperature right at 56 degrees.

Lots of stalactites and stalagmites.

Zeph got to go swimming in the lake even if we could not kayak because of the rough water.

He enjoyed playing on the slides as much as any kid.

Headed down into the cave.

Lots of pretty formations.

And pretty girls.

ROSWELL

We are hanging around Roswell, NM for a few days doing some kayaking and checking out the area.  Camping at the Bottomless Lakes State Park.  There are these small lakes that are very deep because the gypsum and other salts were eroded away and the surface caved in.  One is over 90 feet deep and produces over 5 million gallons of water per day.  That all flows into the Pecos River or I should say what doesn't evaporate in the ponds below the lake.  And those ponds are wetlands that the birds loves.  We saw lots of ducks today.  Also went into town and toured the UFO museum.  That was one of the top priorities Connie had when we decided to come through Roswell.  She said the aliens plucked the missing airliner out of the sky when she first heard about it.  The museum was interesting as Roswell has a long history of alien claims starting in 1947.  Will be headed further south tomorrow.

Lea Lake at the state park is the deepest and largest.  This is the one that puts out 5 mil of water per day.

We saw quite a few turtles kayaking.

The space museum had some pretty interesting exhibits.

A statue of John Chisum in the city center.  Famous for cattle in the Pecos country.

WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT AND SPACE HISTORY MUSEUM

Went to White Sands National Monument and the New Mexico Space History Museum today.  Connie and I were at White Sands in early 1978 before we headed up to Alaska.  The place has sure changed.  They have a better road out to the dunes than they used to and a new visitors center.  We had a great time and Zeph just loved to run around off the leash when we walked out in the dunes a ways.  

Lizard tracks.

I took a picture of Connie jumping off a dune back in 78 - she could jump higher and further back then!

Zeph loves to run!

The dunes go on for quite a distance.

Local families come out and slide down the dunes on disks used for snow.

This guy had left a track over a 100 feet.

Looks like a big set of braids.

New Mexico has a long relationship with the space industry and NASA.