And this is probably about as close as I want to get to the former murder capital of the world.
Pokin wanted to cross the border. Both Nicholas and I thought she was nuts. We won.
Spontaneous camping in the mountains
After our visit to Carlsbad Caverns, we were supposed to go and look for food.
Unfortunately Carlsbad Caverns isn’t really near anything so we decided instead to head to our next destination and figure out something there.
Next destination – Texas. We were headed towards Guadalupe National Park whose claim to fame is that it’s home to the tallest peak in Texas. I’ve climbed taller mountains than that, but since it was on our loop we figured we’d stop in and maybe stay overnight in the RV camp and cook something from our car stash.
It was still early afternoon, so while there, we decided to also ask about trails at the visitor centre. What started with talking about some leisurely day hikes turned into strenuous hikes and back country camping. I really don’t know how. I think because the ranger said something about it being really windy out and that going up might be a bad idea. Nicholas got a bit excited by the news and the next thing I know we’re filling out a permit to indeed go back country camping. And of course, not just anywhere. We were headed up to one of the mountain tops where most assuredly we will be blasted in the face by the wind. Constantly.
I tried to remind my bear bud that we didn’t have proper backpacks, only the tents and sleeping bags because we planned to car camp but at this point I was buried in his daypack and he pretended like he didn’t hear me. Convenient.
A whole lot of last minute packing and many things that didn’t fit into our bags (and thus needed to be hand carried) later, there we were, at the trail head ready to march up.
Might I mention at this point none of us had eaten yet still! Well I hope we get up there quickly so I can eat!
Instead I just kept waiting as the trail kept winding up.
And up.
Eventually we got to the top. By then, the sun was starting to set. Well there goes my chance for lunch. I guess we’re eating dinner now. We hurriedly set up our tent and got to dinner. Being in the back country doesn’t lead to eating luxuries. Campbell Soup Chunky Chicken and Gumbo it was.
Around that time we thought about the fact that we were the ONLY campers at the site. In fact, we hadn’t seen ANYONE else on the trail at all. That thought struck us around the time we also realized that there wasn’t much else to do on a mountain after dark than to go to bed. And then we remembered the rangers mentioning something about bears and mountain lions being in the park. They didn’t seem too concerned about either of them. I wasn’t either. I can take on a bear. I know bear psyche inside out!
So we’re sitting in the tents getting ready for bed as our surroundings steadily got darker and the winds picked up. Soon our tent was shaking and rattling and the wind was howling. Now normally that would be cool but wind howling and blowing can sound a lot like wild animals at night. Which ended up scaring Pokin. A lot. Which started to scare me a little. But I’m a bear and I must be brave! So I timed my shivering to the howling winds. At one point, I wasn’t sure if our tent was going to hold in the wind. Pokin worried about the food blowing off our the animals getting to it. Now that got ME worried about our food to.
A sleepless night later the sun finally started to go up. Originally there was some talk of sunrise photo taking but Pokin was way to scared for that. Works out for me as I finally got to nap a little.
A little while later Pokin got the courage to venture out.
And the scene she was greeted with looked like any perfectly normal tranquil day. And in the tree above the camp was our food. Everything was safe. Overreact much?
We hurriedly got packing anyway. May as well go while the going looks good.
Only to be punched once more face with strong gusts of wind our whole walk down. I was worried I’d get blown off at one point, but Nicholas kept a firm grip on me. Along the way down Nicholas managed to bust up his knee again on the way and Pokin rolled her ankle a few times for fun.
I can’t say how glad I was to reach the car. So glad I promptly ate a chocolate bar even though it was all melted and more than a bit gross.
Well that was quite the spontaneous adventure for us.
It sure was a howl!
Carlsbad Caverns
As a bear who plans to have an epic bear cave one day, I looked forward to visiting Carlsbad Caverns. It’s not the biggest or deepest cave out there, but it’s supposed to be cool and it’s along the way so off we went.
There are two options of exploring the caves – down the elevator, or taking the natural entrance walk. Of course we took the walk so I could check out the caves in more detail.
We paid $5 to get one of those audio tour wands. I thought it’d be worth it to hear more about what these caves are about. There are 50 recordings in total on our walk.
Aside from being a really big cave, Carlsbad is known for the millions of bats that fly out. Unfortunately those bats are all down in Mexico right now. It’s cold here. I don’t blame them. if they WERE around, here’s where you’d hang out to watch them fly. They’re supposed to start coming back next month.
Anyway, after a ranger gave us some dos and don’ts we went down through that entrance.
Oooooh. Caves. I like the size, but I want my cave a bit more high tech than this.
As we went down the path, it was pretty neat to see all the formations.
Of course we stopped to take pictures of ourselves too.
About an hour later, we got to the main Big Cave complex. It got a bit more crowded there but it was still cool to do the loop. They are still mapping out and exploring caves in this complex!
And then I got hungry. Since you’re not allowed any food inside the cavern to avoid luring animals in, we took the elevator back to the surface and went to look for food. Cool cave!
White’s City and the first time I went camping
Turns out I didn’t need to stop in Roswell. There were aliens in White’s City as well.
And a bear for good measure.
White’s City, not Carlsbad, is the closest city to the Carlsbad Cavern. Carlsbad is actually 25 miles away. Though I don’t know if it’s technically a city. There’s not much there other than a motel, an RV park, a gas station, gift shop and a restaurant.
White’s City is named after Charlie White, not related to James White (the guy credited with exploring Carlsbad Caverns.) Charlie White was just some dude who moved from Kentucky to New Mexico to cure his tuberculosis, and decided there was an opportunity for money-making outside the Carlsbad Caverns. I guess that wasn’t worth much to his descendants, who put it up for auction a few years ago.
So we’re camping here for the night before going to Carlsbad Caverns the next day. And it’ll be my first time camping!
I’m excited!
Here’s our tent. We were only one of three campers.
And I claimed my sleeping bag right away.
This is going to be fun. What great bear bonding!
And tomorrow, Carlsbad Caverns!
Roswell
Roswell is not a one trick pony. They’ve got military boarding schools, petroleum production, ranching and all of that stuff.
But you sure wouldn’t know it driving by. The whole town is in on the aliens.
Even the McDonald’s is UFO themed.
Too bad all the effort went into appearances and not the customer service at that McDonald’s.
Life on the highway
And we’re back on the road!
New Mexican restaurants
Today, we hung out again with one of the men behind all that giant pulsed power machine (aka, almost like a laser). We got a tour thanks to Nicholas’ Uncle Frank. I love that my best bear bud knows a Laser Scientist. And today, Uncle Frank took us to try something else – New Mexican food.
For the most part, New Mexican food is a lot like Mexican food, but they’ve got a few specialties like sopapillas, which is a type of fried bread that you eat with honey. I liked eating it with a lot of honey. We went to a place called Monroe’s, and aside from Sopapillas, they served us chips and salsa for breakfast. Even better.
Here’s what sopapillas look like.
And here’s my best bear bud with his uncle Frank.
Lasers. Really, really big ones.
I just saw the big daddy of lightning canons. That’s not really a laser but it’s pretty darn close. My best bear bud and I got a private tour of the Pulse Powered Facility at the Kirkland Air Force Research Laboratory. The place looked right out of Tron. Here, I laid eyes on the Shiva Star. This thing is MASSIVE.
Imagine a machine capable of storing nearly 10 million joules of energy. And then being able to pulse 120,000 volts and 15 million amps in one millionth of a second towards an object. I don’t know what that means, but it sure sounds like a lot!
Anyway, any target of this machine stands no chance.
I got to feast my eyes on what little remained of a test cylinder, which was not much. The thing was compressed into almost nothingness.
I want this kind of power in my paws. I want Nicholas to make me my own Shiva Star. These guys are only using for research on how to achieve nuclear fusion. I’ve got so many better uses than that.
Time to start thinking.
And we have arrived to Albuquerque
First stop, Joey’s. He and his wife Jill live in a very cute adobe house.
Immediate next stop – hotel room where I can get some much needed sleep to make up for the trauma of being forced to get up so darn early in the morning.
The rest of Albuquerque can wait.
Petrified National Forest – Painted Desert
Last stop in the park was the Painted Desert, which is this massive expanse of stratified red stuff that covers several states. Supposedly it’s one of the more impressive features of the park but I was pretty worn out by the time we got here. So I took a look, tried to say hello to some Texans who gave blank stars back at me, then went back to the car.
I’m sure the place would have been more spectacular during sunset, but we had places to go and no time to dwadle!