We had better luck with our National Park today!
Guadalupe Mountains National Park lies only 43 miles south west of Carlsbad Caverns and it’s a new one for us. We arrived at the first visitor area by 9.30, ready to hike a part of the McKittrick Canyon Trail. It was warm but just pleasant at that time of the morning and we had the place virtually to ourselves, passing only one other walker.
It was another 9 miles down the road to the main park visitor centre, where I’d planned to buy a park pin for my collection but unfortunately they don’t have any at present, they were waiting on an order! I guess it just gives me an excuse to come back some day.
From this end of the park the view up to it’s main peak “El Capitan” is pretty impressive. A nice American family asked if we could take their family photo and they reciprocated for us.
From the park we wound down through the hills to a vast expanse of flats that lay between us and El Paso. We drove up to see the base station of the Wyler Aerial Tramway, a cable car that climbs up to a peak overlooking the town. I’d had my doubts that Neil would want to go up the tramway and the view from the base didn’t inspire us much ( the view from his side of the mountain consisted mainly of a large cement quarry!) so we decided to give it a miss and head on our way.
We made one more brief stop at the El Paso Outlets but I think jetleg has affected my shopping mojo, we left without evening opening our wallets!
Another hour and hald drive along the Rio Grande valley was surprisingly green, lots of irrigated farmland lined the river and the views up to the mountains were pretty. Along the way we ran into our old friends from 2012, the U.S. Border Patrol. The were screening all the cars coming through and checking the passports etc of anyone not a US citizen. A brief perusal of our stamps and a couple of questions about our plans and we were on our way with a cheery “Thankyou, stay safe!”
On to the Elephant Butte Inn, our home for the night near the interestingly named town of “Truth or Consequences” . The hotel is pretty busy as they are sponsoring the participants of the Elephant Butte Balloon Regatta which kicks of early tomorrow morning. We plan to be up bright and early for that!