Three more national parks visited in two days.
Monday we got up early and drove south of Carlsbad past the caverns into Texas to visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This park has no roads to see what is in the 47,000 acres. There are 80 miles of hiking trails but we knew we did not have time to hike. We watched the information video in the visitor center. The highest point in Texas is Guadalupe Peak at 8748 feet high.
What is really distinguishing about this mountain range is El Capitan which is at the end of the range. It can be seen from 100 miles away and was used as a guidance point for travelers.
We could see it from Carlsbad. We did drive to the south side of El Capitan on the highway.
We stopped at a point to view the ruins of the mid-1800’s Butterfield stagecoach station at the Pinery.
This was on the stage route from St Louis to San Francisco. The Butterfield Overland Mail Coach had semi-weekly runs, covering 2,800 miles in a maximum for 25 days.
We stopped at Frijole Ranch History Museum but the ranger wasn’t there to let us in. We peeked at some of the displays through the windows. The site had a springhouse, school house, bunkhouse and barn.
We enjoyed seeing the yucca in bloom.
We then headed to Carlsbad Caverns. There are two ways to explore the cave unless you take a ranger-guided tour. There is the natural entrance route which is self-guiding. The information said it is for visitors with plenty of time and in good physical condition. There was a sign just before it started reminding you of this.
The one-mile tour follows the traditional explorers’ route, entering the cavern through the large historic natural entrance.
It descends over 750 feet into the Earth following steep and narrow trails through a tall and spacious passage called the Main Corridor. It ends at the lunchroom and underground rest area near the Big Room. The second way would be to take the elevator down and just tour the Big Room Route.
We opted to take the natural entrance route.
It took us at least 2 hours to go the mile and it was a very strenuous walk. It was beautiful and fun but very exhausting.
When we finished this and ended at the elevators we rode up and ate lunch. Then we descended back down the elevators and walked the basic tour through the Big Room Route which was about one mile long. This took over 1 ½ hours to do this circular route around the perimeter of the largest room in the cave. It was relatively level and the trails were well-lit.
The lighting in the cave was all done to make it as natural as possible. No colored lights are used.
We were totally exhausted when we returned to the hotel for the evening and our legs were extremely sore from walking the incline down for 2 hours. And on Tuesday it was rather difficult to walk, especially down any kind of ramp. Oh how the muscles hurt.
Tuesday morning we left Carlsbad, NM to drive to Alpine, Texas for the night. We stopped at two places on the way. We toured the West of the Pecos Museum in Pecos, TX.
There were many exhibits from early times.
I especially enjoyed the quilt with blocks of the hobo signs.
Pecos is noted as the place of the first ever rodeo on July 4, 1883. It was held because when the cowboys from 4 ranches came to town they were arguing about who was the best. They decided to hold a contest and see.
We next stopped at Fort Davis National Historic Site. The fort was a key in the defense system of west Texas and was used from 1854 until 1891. It was established on the eastern side of the Davis Mountains in a box canyon. We could see foundations from several of the early buildings.
Several of the buildings have been restored and we were able to tour them.
No comments:
Post a Comment