Carlsbad, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas (Feb. 18, 2012)

We started out mid-morning to our next stop in El Paso, Texas.  With great weather and little traffic,  we expected the 140 mile trip to be easy and it was.  During the first half of the drive took along the base of the Guadalupe Mountains.  There were clouds over the mountains and the bright sunshine in the valley highlighted the contrasts in the sky beautifully.  We arrived at the Ft. Bliss RV Park early afternoon and setup quickly.  Going to be here a while.

Carlsbad, New Mexico (Feb. 15, 2012 - Feb. 18, 2012)

We departed Ft. Stockton on a very windy morning.  Carlsbad was a short 140 mile drive from Ft. Stockton and the entire trip was in the desert and oil fields.  Nothing spectacular to record for it all looked the same.  We arrived at the Carlsbad Caverns RV park before noon and set up, still in a windy environment.

Our goal here was to visit the Carlsbad Caverns and tour the local countryside. We planned for the Caverns on Thursday, sight see on Friday and depart on Saturday.

Starting out at 8:30AM, we intending on starting the Cavern tour soon after they opened.  The Carlsbad Caverns are actually on a mountain top.  The view from the Visitor's Center is spectacular.  The entrance to the cavern is nothing but a big hole in the ground.  The trail to the cavern floor took about an hour and was an 800 foot descent.  It was an easy walk and the trail was paved the entire way.  We would recommend this descent for those that are capable of it versus the elevators.  The sights along the way are indescribable.

Once on the cavern floor there are several trails throughout the cavern's main room.  These trails are mostly level.  Again, the sights are indescribable. All-in-all it took almost 4 hours for the tour.  It is no wonder this park is on many people's wish-to-visit list.

Once we felt we had seen everything we had wanted we boarded the cavern elevator for the 750 foot, straight up, ride to the Visitor's Center.  Took all of 45 seconds. 

When we got back to our RV we felt we had been hit in the head with a hammer.  Between the elevation and the amount of walking we had done all we wanted to do was lie down.  An early bedtime that night.

Waking up the next morning we felt even worse so instead of doing any sight seeing we kicked back and prepared for our next destination on Saturday, El Paso, Texas.

Rio Frio, Texas to Ft. Stockton, Texas (Feb. 13, 2012-Feb. 15, 2012)

We departed Rio Frio early and headed north on Texas Route 83 through the Texas Hill Country. An hour later we turned west onto Interstate 10 for the remainder of the trip to Ft. Stockton, 271 miles in all. The landscape changed drastically as we continued west. We entered I-10 just a bit east of Junction, Texas. We were still in Hill Country with lots of tress and shrubbery. And hour later we began to see thr trees disappear and the land get less hilly. Another hour and the land was flat and arid. We had entered the Chihuahuan Desert. It seems we had exchanged the trees for oil wells. Every where you looked there were hundreds of the wells.

We arrived at the Parkview RV Park in Ft. Stockton around 3PM and set up for a very short stay. Our next stop will be Carlsbad, New Mexico. Our stop here was to celebrate Joyce's birthday as well as St. Valentine's day.

Rio Frio, Texas (Jan. 30, 2012-Feb. 13, 2012)

The Parkview Riverside RV Park is in a remote area close to Rio Frio, Texas. This is a remote area and does not even have cell phone coverage. A perfect place to kick back for a week a chill and that is exactly what we did.