Our original plan after leaving Phoenix was to head to Tucson to see an Andy McKee concert. In case you don't know, he is an awesome acoustic guitarist with magical hands and plays beautiful instrumental music. We were very excited to see him in concert since this was going to be his last tour in a while. Unfortunately, when we called the venue to see if tickets could be purchased at the door, the lady on the phone informed us that the tour for the Phoenix and NM portion had been postponed. Bummer. Upon further investigation on his facebook page, it turns out he had a bad flu bug going on and was unable to perform. It was sad but we understand that artists are humans too and need to take time when necessary to recuperate. This put a stop to staying in Tucson and thus we continued to proceed towards Roswell NM but as we hit nightfall, it was time to find our place to settle down.
Our original plan was to stop near Lordsburg AZ down our customary dirt road adventures but when we came to the coordinates to ground truth, we were wary of the soft soils from the ongoing rains and single wide path which quickly disappeared into the darkness. We hopped out the car and walked about half a mile and with no potential turnarounds to find, we decided to head back and find the next best thing. The road was desolate aside from one car every half hour or so. We decided to just take a chance and roadside camp in a gravel pullout that was relatively flat. The setup against the passenger side of the Subaru turned out great and we had no issues with our impromptu spot on the side of the road. Earplugs were needed however since we were close to a roadway.
As we drove on the next morning, our roads brought us towards a billboard which gave directions to a rock hounding location a couple miles off our trail. With no plans aside from drive, we took the opportunity to check it out and for $5, the Subaru got to drive to the hills of Rockhound State Park in NM and pick along the hillside to search for fire agate, thunder eggs and local opals. We did not leave empty handed that's for sure.
As the day drove on, we came closer and closer to our stopping point for the day; White Sands National Monument. We arrived at the NM a half hour before sunset and an hour before gate closure. There was just enough time to get the lay of the land and summit a dune before we had to head out. The next day was to grab a saucer and ride them bad boys. It was totally worth the $3 rental.
Onward to Roswell we traveled where we would be spending two nights with a good friend. She was able to supply a warm abode, hot showers, good food and lots of fun while we set camp in her living room. While in town, we checked out the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge which is just northeast of town and is a safety lake for birds who are on the move. The scenic drive gave us good views of some hawks, numerous flocks of coots and a huge mass of snow geese flying in to join their buddies. We also saw some pronghorn deer on the way out there.
And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Roswell without visiting the International UFO Museum and Research Center which displayed hundreds of documents and papers from the Roswell incident in addition to numerous other collections of photos and depictions of our extraterrestrial visitors from the past. Do you Believe?
Our last stop before crossing into Texas was to Carlsbad Caverns which is a massive underground gallery of amazing stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, columns and other crazy creations of the calcite kind to form within the last million years.
We ended our day driving the short distance south to Guadeloupe Mountains National Park where a strong wind advisory had us sleeping in the Subaru at the visitor parking lot. Not a huge deal but that wind did shake us quiet a bit and we had to make sure anything left outside was heavily held down.
