Day 4 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

I woke up and the sun was just starting to rise over the horizon.

I noticed these tiny little footprints all around our tent. There were definitely crabs and maybe a ground squirrel or a mouse nosing about last night while we were sleeping!

We drove the 25 miles back to the campground after having our morning coffee. We unpacked the Jeep, put things away, took showers, and spent most of the day doing not very much! At around 4:00 Tim suggested we take a ride to Port Aransas.

The beaches we passed were VERY crowded!

We had a nice meal at Virginia’s on the Bay.

Pretty boats!

Back to the visitor center this evening to post the blog for the last two days. Gorgeous sunset tonight!

Day 3 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

We spent the early morning posting the blog at the visitor center.

Our plan for this evening was to camp out on the beach. We packed the tent and all our bedding. We packed lunch and dinner and coffee for tomorrow morning and we drove down South Beach. We found an access road to the mudflats.

We stopped for lunch and then sat on the beach reading and relaxing. The pelicans and gulls were great entertainment.

At around 5:00 we found our camping spot. We set up our camp and had some cheese and crackers. We had chef salads and sourdough bread for dinner. We watched the shadows lengthen.

Sunset.

We saw the moon rise…a full pink moon. The Native Americans called it the pink moon because the pink flowers bloom at this time of year

We enjoyed a fire with some hot chocolate and amaretto.

We stayed up until almost 10:00 and then we slept!

Reading through this, it doesn’t sound too magical. We ate, we slept…all the ordinary things. The magical part is that we were in this incredibly beautiful setting. There was no one else within a half mile. We were all alone on this remote beach…that’s the magic!

Day 2 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

We had a wicked thunderstorm last night.  The wind was howling and very strong.  There was thunder and lightening and lots of rain.  It lasted for a long time.  It was probably the worst storm we have ever had camping in the RV.  There were lots of tent campers across the road from us.  We both worried about them during the night.  This morning they were hanging all of their things, trying to dry everything out.  Tim took them coffee.

We packed the car and drove out onto the beach. Tim had taken the doors off so the sun was streaming in and we had a great view of the ocean waves.  The south beach access is 60 miles long.  We went about halfway.

There are lots of people in ATV’s doing Turtle Patrol.  The Kemp’s Ridley turtle is endangered.  This park with its biologists and volunteers has seriously worked to increase the turtle population.  Because driving is allowed on the beach, the patrols are an important part of saving the turtles.  From April to September, the beaches are patrolled.  If a nesting turtle is spotted, the nest is protected until rangers can come and harvest the eggs.  The eggs are then taken to a hatching facility.  Once the baby turtles hatch, they are released from Padre Island.  Turtles that are released from here will imprint and return here to nest.  This is an important nesting site.  60% of the turtle nests are here.  A yellow flag is flown on days when a nesting turtle is found.  There was a flag yesterday.  The turtles most commonly nest from May – July.

This is a squadron of pelicans in a feeding frenzy.  They must have been following a school of fish.

This flock of egrets flew along with us as we drove down the beach.

We picked up 4 bags of trash.  We also had a toilet seat, a drawer pull, a big yellow jug, and 2 long lengths of marine rope.  We probably only cleaned up 200 feet of beach…it would be easy to get discouraged.  It didn’t take long and it wasn’t hard to do. 

This reminded me of the starfish story.

We sat on the beach for a while, our toes in the water, mesmerized by the waves lapping at the shore.  When the waves got a little bigger and wet us, we headed back.  At high tide there is only room for one vehicle to pass.

We had some afternoon quiet time and then got showered and ready to go out to dinner.  We drove to town to The Angry Marlin where we enjoyed some coconut shrimp.

After dinner, we went out on the patio and listened to live music.

We left the restaurant just as the sky was turning dark.  We took the North Beach access back to the campground.  We saw deer in the dunes.  The moon was nearly full and it was lovely!

Mileage:  62,045 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

It was foggy and really cloudy this morning.  The humidity was 98% and we are unaccustomed to it!

We had a short drive this morning from Alice to Padre Island.  We were at the park and set up by 10:30. 

After breakfast, we packed our cooler and headed out.  We took the Jeep to drive on South Beach. 

I love the ocean.  When we were kids, our family went to the beach every summer.  I love walking in the sand.  I love being in the water.  I love listening to the waves crashing.  I am in my happy place!  The clouds stayed around all day but it was balmy and pleasant even so.

There is a lot of trash and debris on Padre Island.  This is due to the way the currents converge across the Gulf of Mexico.  From as far as the Amazon and Central America, the junk comes.  The rangers and volunteers spend an inordinate number of hours cleaning up the beach.  We only had a small trash bag, but we filled it.  My friend Lois had posted something earlier this year.  Won’t you consider leaving the beach a little cleaner than you found it next time you go?

The pelicans and pipers and curlews and gulls and plovers sat on the beach facing into the wind.  As we passed, they took flight.

We took our dinner to the Laguna Madre or the bayside.  We watched the windsurfers and the pelicans diving for their supper.

A turtle along the road.  Did you know that if you see a turtle crossing the road, you should stop and either watch it cross or carry it to the other side in the direction it was going? 

We drove on the North Beach section of the island and that lead us to a beach park that took us back toward Corpus Christi.  We took the Jeep to refuel for tomorrow’s beach drive.

We got back to the RV and our neighbors came and knocked on the door.  Larry and his friends, Wink, Kevin, and Mitch had caught a lot of fish.  They were having a fish fry and wanted us to join them.  Sheila and Sylvia were warm and welcoming.  It was fun to talk with them and visit.  We stayed up too late and had too much wine!

Mileage:  61,973 Paisano RV Park Alice, Texas

I got up as the sun was rising.  The light was soft and the air was cool and clean.   I had my coffee and watched deer grazing in the campground.  The birds were twittering in the trees.  This was a nice way to start my day.

We dropped down from the center of Texas on 83S.  We had enough of driving on interstate 10 yesterday.  I took a turn driving again today.  Tim has been very patient with me.  We both know that I just have to put in more hours to get more comfortable.  That being said, I felt like I was able to look around a bit more today.  I had been so totally focused on the road directly in front of me…now I can see the bigger picture a bit better!

We drove through Texas Hill Country.  It seems odd to us that everything is so green.  Suddenly there are trees and hills.  We can’t see the whole sky.  The mountains are gone.  There are cheerful wildflowers in rainbow colors lining the roadside.

Last evening in Junction, I saw a sign advertising big game hunting.  Today I saw a sign for Trophy Exotic Hunting and Texas Exotic Hunts.  I googled this.  For a fee of about $250.00, you can enter the ranch and hunt for exotic game.  One ranch that I saw offers a choice of 60 different species of game.  Turkey, whitetail deer, and much more.  What is the much more???  Gazelles, hogs, sheep, impala, sika, antelope, goats, emu; animals from all over the world. We saw lots of ranches that raise exotic animals and I started to think about the zebras I saw the other evening.  Yes, you can even hunt for zebras and kangaroos.  They are all grazing animals; no predators were listed.  At one particular place, there are luxury accommodations, including an air-conditioned bird blind with a bar, and direct TV.  I am not sure I consider shooting exotic wildlife in an enclosure a sport…

We passed lots of ranches.  Some with simple entrances and others more elaborate.  This was a more moderate entrance.

This species of prickly pear blooms with yellow flowers, we saw it everywhere.

We arrived in Alice, Texas around 4 pm. We got propane and set up at the campground.  We started the laundry and went to get supplies.  The clothes are in the dryer and it is almost dark.  Today was a very long day, but tomorrow we are going to the beach, so it is completely worth it!!! For the next several days we will be in Padre Island, Texas. We have heard that we will have no internet or cell service…so no worries if you don’t see a post for a week or so!

Mileage:  61,670 Pecan Valley RV Resort Junction, Texas

Today was about getting across Texas.  We spent all day, almost 400 miles, on 10E.  We took turns driving.  The scenery is green and pretty with wildflowers blooming.  We are in Texas hill country. 

The town of Fort Stockton has this sculpture along 10.

We passed lots of oil rigs.

We passed windmills.

I used my AllStays App to look for camping.  I found the Pecan Valley RV Resort.  There is a pecan grove.

The campground sits on the North Llano River.

The trees are gorgeous and provide nice shade.  This is good because it is 80 degrees outside and 89 degrees in the RV! 

We ventured into the town of Junction for dinner.  This town is nicknamed the “land of living waters.”  This area has more flowing water than any other county in Texas.  It’s a quaint all-American kind of town.  We drove to Schreiner Park and walked along the Llano River.

We stopped and watched little boys playing baseball.

We ate BBQ at Lums and it was delicious.

Not quite sure what “Outdoor Women Gone Wild” refers to, but we can’t stay to find out!

As we drove back to the campground, we saw lots of deer.  As I sit writing the blog, I can hear wild turkeys gobbling!

Day 2 Pine Springs Campground Guadalupe Mountains National Park Salt Flat, Texas

We packed our lunch and drove to the Frijole Road entrance to the park.  We hiked the Smith Spring Trail. 

We passed the Manzanita Spring.

The trail was initially a wheel chair accessible trail.

As the trail progressed it became more challenging.

We took this game trail down into the wash and had to climb back out and then back in and then it was too steep to get back out so we turned around and hiked back the way we had come.  It was pretty and challenging so it added extra adventure, activity, and distance to our hike!

We saw a group of 6 female mule deer far above on the hillside.  They looked large with fawn…it is spring!

This fossil in this rock is a reminder that all of this was undersea 270 million years ago.  The Guadalupe Mountains are actually the remainder of a reef.

This is Smith Spring.  We are in the Chihuahuan Desert.  This spring was important to the survival of the people who lived here.  The area is surrounded by lush green trees. 

The views were spectacular!

After our hike we were looking for a nice place to have lunch.  We drove into New Mexico and to the southern edge of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  There was a place to hike to a cavern here but you can only go on a ranger guided tour.  It was a nice picnic spot.

Wild turkeys.

We drove to Whites City to refuel the Jeep and then headed back “home.”

We had tortellini with shrimp and peas in a lemon, garlic, butter, parmesan sauce…so yummy!

Mileage:  61,297 Pine Springs Campground Guadalupe Mountains National Park Salt Flat, Texas

We started our day watching the cottontails hopping around outside the RV. 

As we watched, we also saw bighorn sheep on the rocks across the way.

We hiked some of the accessible trails at Hueco Tanks.  Hikers are only allowed to explore the North Mountain area without a guide. 

We saw ancient pictographs covered with graffiti. 

Beautiful claret cup cactus.

Lots of cool rock formations.

This is one example of how pictographs have been destroyed.  This pictograph is thought to be a painting of the war between the native people and Mexican soldiers that occurred in 1839.

This is how is appears today.

It really gave us a greater understanding of the need to protect these ancient documents.

We left Hueco Tanks with the plan to travel east.  Tim asked me to drive this morning.  He got us onto the highway and I drove more than 80 miles on 62/180 or the Texas Mountain Trail.  It is a lot to pay attention to. I feel like I cannot relax for even a second…but I also don’t mind doing it. It gets easier each time I climb into the driver’s seat!

We still were not certain where we wanted to go.  Tim decided  that we should go to Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  I pulled over in a picnic area and let him take us into the campground.

After lunch, we headed out in the Jeep to the Williams Ranch Trail.  This trail is secured by locked gates.  First, we had to get the key from the visitor’s center. 

The sky had some dark and threatening clouds.  We got a few drops of rain and the clouds blew by.

This trail intersects with the Butterfield Overland Mail Trail or the Butterfield Stagecoach Trail.

The trail was gravel and rough in places.

Williams Ranch was built in the early 1900’s. The guy who built it brought his new bride here.  She stayed one day and one night and then went back home!  Given how isolated and remote this site is today…I can only imagine how she must have felt!

It is a beautiful place.  The views of the mountains and the salt flats far below are incredible.   

The rain clouds in the distance.  We could even hear thunder.

We got back to the RV, happy and tired!!

Mileage: 61,206 Hueco Tanks State Park El Paso, Texas

Tim was awake early and ready to go. Densely clouded, leaden skies and a temperature of 39 degrees meant that it was even colder at higher elevations and likely to snow. We were on our way south toward Silver City and we still had mountains to cross. Is it snowing on those peaks???

As we descended into the valley there were trees with tiny new leaves. This is my very favorite time of the year!

Pretty scenery.

Free range cattle farming.

We stopped for breakfast at Leopold Vista. Aldo Leopold was a visionary. He was an ecologist who believed that it was important to preserve wilderness or “an area still wild enough and big enough to travel on horseback for 2 weeks without crossing any roads or seeing other signs of human development.” In 1924 he was able to get the Forest Service to designate the Gila Forest as the nation’s first wilderness area. We are grateful for men like Leopold who had the foresight to create these beautiful public lands.

We thought about staying in Silver City. We had wanted to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. We were going to find a campground for the RV and take the Jeep. It was going to take 2 hours to travel each way. It was a cold 49 degrees, and overcast. We decided to save that for another day and travel further south to El Paso where it was supposed to be 72 degrees. The choices for camping in and around El Paso were pretty dismal. The reviews were poor and all were near Route 10. We looked at the map and found Hueco Tanks State Park on the outskirts of El Paso. This would be a neat place to spend some time. We really got here too late in the day to hike around and see the pictographs. This park has a history of native presence that dates back 10,000 years. We both had to watch an orientation video to be able to camp here overnight. They are working very hard to protect what is left of the pictographs and other artifacts that remain. Unfortunately, prior to all their rules and protections, there was a lot of damage and graffiti in the park. Now only 70 people each day are allowed to come in and hike. 3/4 of the park is only accessible on guided tours and the gate is locked to the public at 6pm. They are serious about preserving the history of this sacred place.

Mileage:  60,937 Cottonwood Campground Apache National Forest Glenwood, New Mexico

The wind died down sometime during the night.  We were at 4,000 feet in elevation and it was 48 degrees this morning when we got up.  The warmth from the sun made it crisp and pleasant to be outside.

We continued on Route 60 through Arizona. 

We stopped at this rest area.  There is a shrine for the Apache people.  We are entering Apache Tribal land.  On the reservation, you cannot hike, camp, hunt, or fish without a permit from the Apache Tribal Headquarters.

Claudia said “Go see Salt River Canyon.”  I’m going to tell you that if Claudia tells you to go…you should listen.  This was a stunning ride.  The road was gently rolling, there were switchbacks and wide sweeping turns.  We kept pulling over at each scenic overlook so that we could see the river, the rapids, and the canyon from another perspective.  It was just so pretty.  As usual, we took lots of pictures.  This evening when we were sorting pictures for the blog, we were kind of disappointed…the pictures don’t even look like what we saw!  Some people call this the “Mini Grand Canyon.”  There is nothing very mini about it.  It was so nice to be able to drive all the way down to the river and then ascend the mountains again. 

There was this memorial along the way.  I love that it says: “Hike mountains, Ride trails, Camp long, Chase adventure.”

We traveled on through Carrizo.  We passed the Bluebird Mine.  This area is “the copper center of the world.”  We saw the copper mine and a copper refining plant.  There were tractor trailers loads of copper being hauled out of town. 

We took 73E across the White Mountain and into the town of Whiteriver.  We parked across from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  The town is surrounded by all of this incredibly beautiful land.  The town itself is very impoverished.  The houses were small and poor.  There was so much trash.  I watched teenaged kids toss their trash onto the ground.  I don’t understand the whole littering thing.  This is their home, their place, their land…why the trash everywhere???  It made me very sad.

The trees began to change.  These tall pines reminded me of some places in North Carolina.

As we continued our ride, we climbed higher in elevation, over 10,000 feet.  We began to notice patches of snow in the shadows. 

Then there was even more snow and even a ski resort.

All day long we had been seeing warning signs.

I had been scouring the mountainsides looking for animals.  We saw a herd of about 40 elk.

We also passed some horses grazing and a cattle ranch or two.  We saw burros and yaks on a farm.  I also saw 5 zebras in a field (YES, zebras!!!).  I wish that I had thought to take a picture.  I was so surprised, that by the time I realized what I was seeing, we had passed.

We drove on the Coronado Scenic Trail Route 180.  It was late in the afternoon and it was time to find a camping spot.  The first campground looked so nice that we turned around to go back to it.  It was called Luna Lake Recreation Area.  We traveled the dirt road back to the campsites and the gate was locked.  The campground was closed. I had neglected to read the details online…open from May-October…oops!!! This campground sat at 8,000 feet and the forecast is for snow there tomorrow, so it was probably okay that we couldn’t stay there. 

The next campground was closed because of the flooding of the San Francisco River about a month ago.

The next campground was 6 miles off the highway on a dirt road.  The sign at the beginning said no trucks greater than 38 feet permitted…

The next campground, Cottonwood Campground, was only for tents…we decided to go in and look around and see if we could get in.  There was no one else there and there was a site perfect for us to pull through.  We are at 5,800 feet.  Maybe the snow won’t get us here!

We made our dinner and sat by a fire.  It felt strange to sit in the woods after being in the desert for the past 2 months!