Living Desert Zoo and Gardens
Brantley Lake State Park
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the Natural Entrance
Cloudcroft Cloud Climbing Rail Trail, Depot Replica
Valley of Fires National Recreation Area
What a weekend!!! Jodi had a great night (Friday p.m. and Saturday a.m.) even though she did only sleep an hour. She was quite busy, in a hotel room in Roswell, NM, forwarding photos from Hannah's parents in Hawaii to Stephen in Afghanistan of our new little buddy immediately after birth!! How cool is that?? Yeah, it's cool but Jodi didn't wake me so I slept through it all.
Somewhere around 7:30 Saturday a.m. we did lay back down so Jodi could get some sleep. When we got up we headed on to Carlsbad and the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. VERY cool. All of this trip was planned during our 20th anniversary trip in 2002 when we came through New Mexico and fell in love with it. We had planned to do all this then but simply ran out of time.
One of the biggest attractions to me here was the Mexican Gray wolf. They had six of the most active wolves I've seen in a zoo anywhere. Great to have such a zoo with nothing but native animals in it right here in our own state.
Then to Brantley Lake State Park to camp for the evening. Great site with a good view of the lake. Got a little cooler than we expected so we wished during the night that we had used our good bags. Then during the night her sleep pad sprung a leak for some reason so she slept basically on the ground. I fixed her coffee and got the fire going so she could finally relax. Then I fixed breakfast that we enjoyed around the fire. I couldn't dare stay at the lake and not hike down to it of course then when I got there I couldn't stand to not wade in and see how it felt. I waded in as far as possible without getting my shorts wet. That just wasn't enough, it felt SOOOO good. So I looked around, made sure noone was there, stripped to my boxers and dove it. OHHHH did that ever feel good. I couldn't believe the water felt so good. Afraid someone might come over the hill I didn't stay nearly as long as I wanted to but it was great while it lasted.
Then showers and head to Carlsbad Caverns Nat'l Park. What a place!! The visitor's center, bookstore, restaurant and gift shop are all very nice but then add the caverns and OH MY GOSH what a place. I wish it wasn't quite so far from home there but there are still plenty of other places to explore.
As we headed out of the caverns we saw some pretty big lightening so Jodi was pretty set on a hotel again instead of a tent. She now has the lifelong job of finding our hotels, the one she picked for Sunday night was WAYYYY better than the one I picked Friday night.
Up this morning and head to Artesia and west to Cloudcroft. I had seen on the New Mexico Rails Trails website several trails, some finished some not, out of Cloudcroft with a number of tressels in the same conditions. Jodi was still deserving of R&R so she stayed at the car while I took off straight up the hill to check out the trails. I did almost 2 miles in close to record time (for me) by doing as much trail running as I could stand at over 8600'!!
Unfortunately all good things, including road trips, must end but we saved time for one more stop. Valley of Fires National Recreation Area is just outside Carrizozo. It is another area we've wanted to visit for a while now so we timed the trip to get us there in time to explore before it closed. Much fun but unfortunately I didn't find any lava tubes I could get into and explore like Jodi and I did in Craters of the Moon in Idaho.
Jodi and I have gotten good enough at these road trips and their aftermath that 19 minutes after we got home the car was unloaded, camping gear put away, laundry started and we were both sat down relaxing. Now I have to restock the camping gear with coffee and instant tea so we're ready for the next trip. Hmmm ..... so many choices!!
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