Finding snow in Texas
Day 1 – Travel day
The night before we were scheduled to leave for our trip, North Carolina was forecasted to receive snow and ice. Our state notoriously does not handle winter weather well, so I was worried that there may be flight delays or cancellations. Luckily, although the roads were blanketed in a light layer of snow, the winter weather was mild, and we were able to have an uneventful flight to El Paso, Texas. Cody had requested a compact vehicle, and surprisingly, we got a Kia Soul. This is the first time we’ve ended up getting a car type we actually requested!
Once we ventured out of the El Paso airport, it was a bit overwhelming. Our first stop was Walmart, which was hopping on a Saturday night. We bought some groceries and went to a nearby shopping mall to pick up a quick dinner for our 2-hour drive to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Cody did well navigating these new roads. The drive was mostly a two-lane highway with no center median. It was a bit unsettling to see the headlights of huge pickup trucks zooming past us at 90 miles an hour, only a few inches away from our car. We also had a mandatory stop at a border patrol station, where the officer asked us if we were US citizens before we could continue on our way.
We couldn’t see much of the landscape at night, but we could make out the shadows of the mountains looming around us. It was pretty to see the El Paso city lights illuminating the base of these mountains. The location of our Airbnb was very remote. The directions involved us driving past “Slaughter Canyon,” to the right of a deserted fire station and following dirt roads for about 2 miles, before finding our abode for the next couple of days.
Day 2 – Guadalupe Mountains, McKittrick Canyon
In the morning as we walked outside our Airbnb we could see the entire 40 mile Guadalupe range laid out in front of us. A much different view than the night before! Our first day would be venturing into Guadalupe Mountain National Park. It was about a 30-minute drive from where we were staying. We saw remnants of snow dotting the mountains in the distance. We checked in with the ranger at the visitor’s center, telling him that we were considering trekking up to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas. He cautioned us that the snow in some places was up to 8 inches deep, with icy trails and sub-zero windchill closer to the peak. As we were speaking, there was also an active rescue mission occurring where a hiker was lost on the mountain overnight. This was a bit more than we bargained for, so we decided to go to McKittrick Canyon trail instead.
This hike was relatively flat and about 7 miles out and back. There were patches of snow and ice on the trail, only matched in their color by the smooth white limestone rocks of the dry riverbeds. The landscape of the trail is interesting. You initially walk through a desert landscape, but as you venture further into the canyon the vegetation noticeably changes to more grasses and deciduous trees. It’s a completely different environment as you head further into the canyon.
In 1931, William Pratt built a small cabin at the confluence of the two rivers that flow through McKittrick Canyon. He donated these 5,000 acres to the Nation Park Service in 1963, and his contribution was instrumental to the creation of Guadalupe National Park in 1972. Continuing through the canyon we came to a spot called “The grotto”. It looks like a cave with bulbous rock hanging down from the ceiling and seemingly sprouting from the ground. There are a few picnic tables that provide a great place to eat lunch and trail snacks.
On our way back, we decided to make a small snowman to show our nephew, B. As we started on our little snowman, a couple passed by and started clapping with excitement that we were building a snowman. They were visiting from Chicago, and apparently snowmen enthusiasts. They immediately started finding accessories, picking up the smallest limestone rocks for its eyes and even finding twigs and leaves for its arms and hair.
We went into the town of Carlsbad after our hike to visit a gift shop that had pressed pennies. I always feel a little embarrassed to ask the store clerks for change to get a 51-cent souvenir, however, they are always obliging. This man even asked me if I preferred the shiny or dull pennies to get the best press. We also learned that there was a misspelling on the pressed pennies here (mountain is spelled “mounatin”). We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called El Charro (I had a pork dish with rice and beans. Cody had a steak quesadilla). We also went to the Pecos River Flume, a concrete structure that supplies water to the area for irrigation and was built in 1903.
Day 3 – Carlsbad Caverns and Devil’s Hall
This morning, we went to Carlsbad Caverns. Due to ice the natural entrance was closed, and we had to take the elevator 750 feet down into the cavern. Cody thought going into the cave via elevator gave it a little bit of a Disney attraction feel. You get in an elevator and emerge inside an eerily quiet space underground where the only sounds you hear are the occasional drip drip drip of water. The “Big Room” is 8 acres in area, 255 feet tall at its apex, and over 600 feet wide. It really is an impressive sight. You almost forget you’re so far underground. Various chambers and sections of the caverns have names like “The bottomless pit”, “King’s Palace”, and “spirit world”. The Spirit World was discovered in 1985 and can only be accessed via an opening at the very top of the Big Room 255 feet from the cavern floor. Due to this, very few people have ever been in it.
After our spelunking experience, we backtracked to the Guadalupe Mountains to hike on the Devil’s Hall trail. We ascended a series of switchbacks, until we reached a river wash filled with large boulders. The boulders were deposited there and shaped by the rushing water during wet times. There is no clear marked trail, following other peoples’ snowy footprints and the contours of the dry river, choosing your own way up boulders, until you reach the base of the mountains and entrance to the “hallway.” It looks like the trail ends here, but you can climb your way up the shelves of rock or traverse a narrow ledge to continue towards the Devil’s Hall. The Hall is about 15 feet wide, 200 feet long, and has 100 foot tall sheer cliffs rising up on either side as you walk through it.
On the way back we saw our first animal on the trail (a squirrel), but we missed our exit off the dry, bouldery, river wash highway. Fortunately Cody noticed that things didn’t look familiar, and we both had GPS tracking on our phones to lead us back to the correct path. The nice thing about hiking down a canyon is you can’t really go the wrong way.
Day 4 – Permian Creek trail
https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/gumo_whattimeisit.htm
Most of Texas is in the Central Time Zone (CST), however the boundary between CST and Mountain Time (MT) is just a few miles south of the park. With this transition happening so nearby, our phones weren’t always updating the time change, making it a bit confusing to know what time it actually was! The gates also close promptly at 5pm, and we didn’t want to get stuck in the park. Eventually we figured out the entire park operated on MT regardless of which time zone it technically was a part of.
The weather was warming up, so we decided to tackle a hike at a higher elevation, for us this meant hiking about 2,300 feet up the Permian Reef trail. The start of the hike was rocky, leading us up smooth, dark limestone slabs. As this was an underwater reef system 250 million years ago, we could see underwater fossils and their imprints all around us. At some parts of the trail, we had to make a choice between getting poked by the plants, or having unsteady rocky footing on narrow one foot wide paths with steep drop offs. Other than seeing thousands of fossils, the best part of this hike was how peaceful it felt. We didn’t encounter another person the entire day!
After our hike, we went back to El Paso. We had dinner at L&J cafe. I had tampiquena, which was a huge plate of grilled chicken topped with green chiles, onion and tomato, with sides of rice, beans, guacamole, and a cheese enchilada. Cody had a taco salad. We also had a takeout order of sopapilla, which is fried dough topped with cinnamon sugar and honey. Although our AirBNB for the night was less than 10 minutes away, we couldn’t wait, and ended up eating them in the parking lot while they were still warm.
Day 5 - White Sands and Pistachio Land
Our AirBNB was a tiny house/shed in the owner’s backyard. It was nicely redone, and it had all the amenities we needed. It was also a great location, closeby to delicious Mexican food. This morning, we woke up early, drove 2 minutes down the street, and arrived at Gussie’s Bakery right when they were opening at 6 am. There was a long glass enclosed case with lots of treats. We bought a donut, apple pastry, churro, and guava pastry. My favorite were their tamales! I ordered one with chicken and green chiles, wrapped in a corn dough that were steamed in corn husks. The prices were affordable, with all of these tasty treats totaling $8.30.
We were ready to tackle White Sands National Park, now that we had our carbohydrate stash. The park’s area totals 275 square miles. It is the largest gypsum dune field in the world. Gypsum is the material used in plaster and drywall. Gypsum infused water flows down the mountains, depositing in alkali flats. Selenite crystals form when the water evaporates. Winds from the southwest pick up the gypsum pieces eroding it into soft, fine grain sand, creating waves across the desert. All of this was formed within the last 4000 to 7000 years. The sand dunes are always changing, and move on average 12 to 15 feet a year. The plants do not have it easy here, as they can quickly be swallowed up by the dunes; those that survive are able to grow quickly and scatter their seeds. We did not see any animals, however, many of the species here have adapted to become lighter in color to enhance their chances of survival.
We hiked the Alkali Flats trail in the counterclockwise direction. As you are walking on white sand, there isn’t an exact trail to follow, but there are red trail markers all along the way. Before leaving one, you need to locate the next one, to avoid getting lost in a sea of white sand. It was incredible walking up and down the sand dunes, seeing the sparkling white sand and the ripples made by the wind gusts. It was quiet, calming and otherworldly. It reminded me of walking through meditation labyrinths, except with a missile range within shouting distance at one point.
After our hike, we took a trip to Pistachio Land. Cody had stumbled upon this attraction, when he was looking up places that had smashed pennies. This was a surprisingly great stop! We saw the world’s largest pistachio statue, standing at 30 feet tall. We ate pistachio samples, and ended up buying some of our favorites, honey garlic and spicy ranch for me, and lemon and margarita for Cody. We also had tasty pistachio ice cream they made on site.
Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the sand dunes to sled! I was a bit scared at first, but it was very fun. We also found a nice spot to watch the sunset. A White Sands the sun sets behind the mountains that overlook the dunes. It’s a really cool sight and one of the better places I’ve watched a sunset. In the evening, we went back to Gussies for more pastries and tamales!
Day 6
We woke up early this morning to catch our flight out of El Paso. On our way through security my bag was flagged for further inspection. The TSA agent gave me a confused look as he pulled out a plastic bag rolled up in a wad from my bag, then chuckled to himself when I informed him it was a tamale, and I’d be eating that for breakfast because it was better than the airport food! The remainder of our travel day was uneventful and we made it back home to join the real world again.
