Springtime in the Southwest

                                          Camping in Tucson, AZ outside of Saguaro National Park

We spent much of the spring exploring the Southwest: Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. I have never considered myself a hot and dry desert person, but springtime in this part of the country is stunning. The wildflowers were on display everywhere we went. Desert blooms brought new life to what I often consider a barren or brown landscape. The cacti were popping, the lizards were mucking about, and the birds were migrating! We were able to visit five national parks together - my list is now up to 26 parks total.

~ Grand Canyon National Park ~

We spent a few days exploring the Grand Canyon by foot and bicycle. We camped on either end of the canyon and watched every sunrise and sunset we could. One evening, we watched the sun go down over the canyon walls from the Desert Watchtower. We spent a morning enjoying coffee with the backdrop of a moody sunrise, complete with a surprise snowfall at Mather Point. The colors and size of the canyon are not truly captured by these photos, but the memories are treasured. We biked Hermit Road to Hermit's Rest, which is closed to personal vehicles and only accessible by foot, bike, or park bus. So, we had the road much to ourselves as we rode. 

Sunset at Desert Watchtower

The most grand

Snack break on our bikeride

Just a couple bikes

Just a couple nerds watching the sunrise.

Snowy, moody sunrise at Mather Point

After the Grand Canyon, we pit-stopped at Montezuma Castle National Monument. This monument preserves dwellings built into a 150-foot limestone cliff hundreds of years ago by the Sinagua people. It's estimated that they were erected between the years 1100 and 1350 (at least 675 years ago). The "castle" is situated above Beaver Creek and otherwise surrounded by desert.

 

~ Saguaro National Park & Tucson, AZ ~

We were unexpectedly and quickly in love with Tucson (it was named one of the world's greatest places by Time in 2023, so we shouldn't have been so surprised, really). The desert vibes, the endless cacti, the wildflowers, and the cacti (yes, I already said cacti) won our hearts. We had planned on staying a few days, but ended up there for about a week. There are so many different kinds of cactus here! There is also great bird watching and scorpion hunting (so says Chuck). We had hoped to do some backpacking in the park, but I didn't realize how much water you have to carry in the desert. The recommendation is one gallon per person per day... so, going out for just two days would have meant carrying over 15 pounds of water each. Needless to say, we opted for day hikes and more low-key adventures. 

Trisha with a cactus...

... another cactus.

... and a barrel cactus!

... and some really big Saguaro cactuses! 

Our sweet desert campsite

A HUGE cactus in our campsite

Chuck's old friend Marcus from Camp Skylemar. Marcus and his family invited us to their home in Tucson for dinner. It was lovely <3

Desert sunset in our campsite

~ White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks ~

We left Tucson anticipating more parks, beautiful sights, and natural wonders. First up was White Sands, which is a confusing and otherworldly place. White sand for miles as you climb and descend the massive dunes. This was not a full-day trip, but we got our fill of the seemingly endless sand dunes. From here we traveled to Carlsbad (more on that below) and then a quick stop through Guadalupe Mountains NP. Guadalupe is really a hiking park and there is very little to do road-side. So, we did a short natural history trail and forgot to take any pictures - we got a patch though! We stayed at Sunset Reef Campground for a few nights while we explored White Sands and Carlsbad - it was a nice, free BLM spot. 

Chuck in the distance, traversing the dunes

That's me on the dunes

We got the full experience at Carlsbad Caverns: we spent most of the day underground, did a guided tour of one of the caves that is only open to a small number of guests per day, and watched the bats emerge from the cave at sunset (we even saw some javelinas on the hillside while the sun was setting). The rock formations, underground pools, and sheer vastness of the space were incredible. During our tour, the ranger turned off all of the lights in the cavern and the whole group sat silently for a minute. It was a wild experience to be in complete darkness underground just listening to the drips of the cave. 

The entrance... time to go down!

Chuck taking the trail into the cave. At this point, we had no idea what awaited us inside. 

Look at the tiny people in the background! It is HUGE in the cavern. It isn't really very light in there, I used a night-sight setting on my phone to try to capture more of the background. It is hard to take pictures using just a phone in the caverns.

There is an elevator that travels from the visitor center at the surface ~750 feet down to the cave floor. We walked down into the cave, but did ride the elevator to take a lunchbreak before heading back into the cave. 

Underground pool

 

Big Bend National Park - TEXAS

~ Big Bend National Park ~

After a couple of close calls with border patrol (heads-up, there are internal border patrol stops in the states that border Mexico up to 75 miles or so from the actual border... news to us!), we headed deep into West Texas. Big Bend is the most redeeming part of Texas I have encountered. As you may have read or heard from me before, Texas is not my favorite state. It just freaks me out. Lots of guns, border patrol, possession of weed is a felony, it's hot, there are tornados (narrowly averted a crisis in that department as well), also hurricanes, weird animals; it's a lot to handle. In any case, this trip to Texas was surprisingly pleasant and I have accepted the fact that I may visit the state again in future years.... maybe. 

So, we started just outside of Big Bend in Lajitas on the border of Mexico. We dined at a resort in the company of a scrappy roadrunner who was highly interested in pizza crust and other human foods (we were not feeding the Roadrunner, but it is clear that others have). 

After a night in Lajitas, we entered the park, where we would stay and explore for about a week. Big Bend is unique in that there are many different biomes within the park. The simplest way to separate these is into three distinct ecosystems: the river and riparian zone, the desert, and the mountains (or montane biome). The flora and fauna in each zone have some overlap but are largely unique to their own areas. For instance, mountain lions and black bears inhabit the mountains where they live among Ponderosa Pines (trees normally seen much farther north). In the desert, there are rattlesnakes, lizards, and ringtails living amongst the cacti and scrub. It was interesting to spend time in each area. 

    The first few nights we camped in the desert on one of the park's famed backcountry roads. Here, I had a panic attack during a windstorm thinking that the camper was going to be tipped over (it wasn't). We took the truck further down some of the roads to explore a different side of the park (4x4 and high clearance required).

     Next, we spent two nights in the mountains. The second night was an overnight in a backcountry site in Boot Canyon where we listened to a Mexican Whippoorwill call until the early hours of the morning. After dropping our camping gear at our site, we summitted the tallest mountain in Big Bend: Emory Peak. The last bit of the trail was a rock scramble leading to a gorgeous summit with 360* views and a ton of ladybugs (for some reason....). No mountain lion sightings. Though they probably saw us. 

On our hike we ran into one of Chuck's students, Everett. They first met at Rippleffect in Maine when Everett was a student on a kayaking trip. A couple of years later, they reunited in Patagonia when Everett joined a trip Chuck was leading there. Then here on a trail in Chisos Basin in Big Bend they meet again! 

The summit of Emory Peak

Our campsite in Boot Canyon

A natural see-saw that Chuck discovered in our campsite. A tree fell and wedged between another tree's trunk.

    Our last couple of nights were spent along the Rio Grande in the scorching heat of early summer. We did early morning birding walks and shorter natures trails in this area since the afternoons were so hot (over 105* in late April/early May). The Rio Grande was not muy grande in the park. The Rio Grande has dry and wet areas, many tributaries, and (like many rivers, especially in the west) is highly managed and utilized for agriculture, etc. The ranger I spoke to about it said the small size of the river is typical for that area and season. There were livestock in the park that walked across the river from Mexico (not ideal for anyone involved); we saw cow and a donkey near the visitor center one day. Most of the water is used up before it gets to this point. Similar to the Colorado River.

Our last stop in Big Bend was the Fossil Exhibit. It had some neat replicas of fossils and dinosaur remains that have been found in the park. The geologic and natural history of this area is fascinating. Not to mention the sheer magnitude of fossils collected here. If you want to know more about how Big Bend preserves 130 million years of geologic time, you could journey here, or here, or here for starters.

~ Other stops along the way ~

We ended in Austin, Texas where Trisha was scheduled to teach a NOLS Wilderness Medicine course. After a couple of days of exploring Austin, Chuck took off for Alaska to start his NOLS summer. Before getting to our final destination, we made some interesting stops along the way that were not National Parks, most importantly Biodome!!!! One of my all-time favorite movies as a teenager was Biodome. A classic 90s stoner comedy movie. In high school, I would watch it in Spanish to try to learn the language. I thought because I knew all the lines this would be successful; it wasn't particularly helpful in the end. 

    In any case, I never knew that it was based on a real failed experiment in a dome in the desert of Arizona. Those more in touch with American culture and events circa 1993 will remember this experiment as Biosphere 2 - it got a bunch of bad press at the time. It turns out Biodome is satire, incredible. I cannot explain how excited I was when Chuck informed me that 1. this is a real place 2. it was a real experiment. 3. Biodome was filmed here and 4. we could GO THERE IN REAL LIFE. And so we did. And we met a scientist working inside. He fed us cherries grown in the dome. It was surreal.

Chuck at Not a Damn Chance Burger - Neen Williams' burger joint

Biking around Austin

annnnnnd, that's it for now. i am still playing catch-up with adventures.

stay tuned. until soon.

The growing patch collection.

These are all patches of national parks we have been to since getting the Lil' Home.

Starting May/June 2023