Southern New Mexico and Big Bend

[Floridafran]

Since we had to cancel our late June trip to Yellowstone with our grandson, Tom and I have decided we'll wait until Fall and go 2 places we've wanted visit but never were able to get to - southern New Mexico and the Big Bend area.

Not counting the drive out there and back, we'll have 4 weeks. I'm finding it hard to figure out how to divide our time between the 2 areas.

All I've booked so far are 3 nights at Oliver Lee Memorial SP in order to take the October 23rd full moon hike at White Sands and a few other hikes close by.

We prefer State and Federal parks, although we do like having at least electricity in case we need to run A/C, or heater.

We enjoy taking our Jeep on scenic drives - paved or not - and if there's hiking to be done along the way, even better. Avid amateur photographers. We love interesting geologic formations, ghost towns, rockhounding, and pretty much anything that gets us out away from cities and crowds.

Any advice any of you have on any of the things I've thrown out here would be greatly appreciated.

[Waiter21]

We love Oliver Lee park...

ALSO - look at Valley of Fires BLM just west of Carrizozo NM... They have hookups, very nice.. About 45 minutes north of Alamogordo NM.

[homeless]

Martha Light for boon docking one night!

[bfisher003]

Originally Posted by Waiter21

We love Oliver Lee park...

ALSO - look at Valley of Fires BLM just west of Carrizozo NM... They have hookups, very nice.. About 45 minutes north of Alamogordo NM.

Totally agree—we really enjoyed both of these places, as well as City of Rocks. It’s a short drive from Oliver Lee to White Sands, too.

[kmlisle]

My favorite hike in Big Bend was to a Mesa Pouroff just south of the Chisos campground in the park. It is a place where the water pours off the top of a mesa during a rain storm and the weathering makes for interesting patterns in the rock. It had rained recently and the desert flowers were all in bloom. Quite a spectacular view!
Also there is a ranger led sunset hike at white sands that we did last year. And of course Carlsbad - I loved the sunset viewing the bats leaving the cave and you can hike on your own down through the histori entrance with a guided audio tour and then take the elevator back up. Enjoy!

[bfisher003]

Ah, so they finally got the elevator fixed at Carlsbad? When we were there a couple of years ago it wasn’t working and they had no idea when it might be fixed.

[SeeTheUSA]

Just a few minutes south of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, across the state line into Texas, is Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GMO). Highest elevation in Texas, beautiful and extremely interesting geological formations and pioneer history. Definitely worth a look. It’ll be on your way to Big Bend (another breath-taking place!).

GMO is pretty much a hiking park, but has a couple of no-reservations campgrounds, no hookups. If you can, hike to Guadalupe Peak .... a m a z i n g!

[twogypsies]

Big Bend.... definitely stay at Rio Grande Village. There's a dry campground (water fill/dump station) in a pleasant setting and also a 'RV Park' with hookups - RVs are parked in a row, typical of RV parks. Staying there in Fall is beautiful with the huge yellow cottonwoods against the backdrop of blue sky and red mountains. Nice Jeep driving from there, also.

Yes, the hike to Guadalupe Peak in the Nat'l Park is awesome! Our name is up there! You could even stay there for Carlsbad.... or Brantley Lake State Park for Carlsbad.

If doing Carlsbad Nat'l Park you may be too late for the bats. They are also snowbirds!

How far north in New Mexico do you want to go? Between White Sands and Santa Fe there isn't a lot unless you're definitely driving through. Just north of Albuquerque and before Santa Fe is Cochiti Corp of Engineer park and about a mile from there is the awesome Kasha-Katuwe Nat'l Monument (Tent Rocks). You can easily do a day trip to Santa Fe from Cochiti. Ask the office for info and they can tell you where to park your car (by the great Farmer's Market) and then tour Santa Fe using the public bus - very easy to get to the main attractions. Santa Fe isn't really a large city so easy to see. Bandelier Nat'l Monument and a tour of Los Alamos is worth a stop. Naturally, the Taos area is worth doing the circular drive over to Eagle Nest and Red River - very pretty in Fall.

Texas: Davis Mtn. State Park is very pretty and do a night tour at McDonald Observatory nearby.

[Floridafran]

Thanks for all these replies. Some things I knew, some I didn't.

We want to stay 2-3 nights at Guadalupe Mountain NP. For those who know, does that make the drive to Sitting Bull Falls on the west side of Carlsbad too far? We won't be going to the caverns. (I've been and my husband isn't a fan of caves no matter how spectacular.)

I'm trying to keep the numbers of places we camp to a reasonable number, but we also don't want to have too many 100 mile drives in the Jeep to get to the places we want to see/things we want to do.

We aren't going any farther north than US 380 trip because we plan to the visit the whole Santa Fe/Taos swath across the state either on our way to or from Yellowstone next year. Plaza Blanca, Kasha-Katuwe, and Bisti are just a few of the things on to-do list for that trip.

twogypsies, I hope we make it to the top to add our names to that book at the peak.

As always, I know there are more things to do and see than we'll have time for so I'm trying to curb my enthusiasm and keep it manageable.

[followingsea]

Rock Hound and Bottomless Lake SP.

[dayle1]

There is a Space Museum in Alamogordo. Also plenty of hiking and jeep trails in Lincoln Nat. Forest around Cloudcroft, but the campgrounds will be closed (except maybe Overflow) by about mid Oct. since the elevation is 9000 ft. Anyway, if the weather is ok, 16 miles from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft with a 4500 ft change in elevation. Also an observatory at Sunspot.

There is a state park and observatory near Fort Davis, Tx. And Balmorhea State Park with it's spring water pool just off I-10.

Big Bend has so many, many miles of jeep roads you won't be able to keep the tank filled up and there is also Terlingua and the River Road.

[Ndrorder]

Valley of fires state park on 380 near Carrizozo (Hike on Lava flow). Three rivers State park just north of Alamogordo (Hike with petroglyphs) Botanical gardens in Carlsbad. The views getting to and at the Sunspot observatory near Alamogordo are worth the trip. UFO Museum in Roswell.

[bfisher003]

And don’t forget the Marfa Lights. [emoji846]

[slojo]

Brantley Lake State Park was a great place to stay, about 30 minutes to Sitting Bull Falls