West Texas via Denver

Sunday, October, 23

Two weeks ago I left Houston for Denver. I made the drive in a little over 16 hours. My fastest time yet for covering over a thousand miles in one push. I like to drive so time passes easily for me on the road.

I spent most of my time in Denver visiting my mother and doing misc. maintenance and painting around her home. The rest of my time was spent catching up with my sister, brother in law and nephew as well as a couple of friends. Time passed quickly but not before catching a Green Bay Packers game at the famous Rocky Flats Lounge and three rounds of bowling with my eleven year old nephew at the local neighborhood bowling alley. By the third game I bowled a 150. I felt pretty good about that considering I only bowl about once a year.

This morning I left Denver for a 10 hour drive due south to Guadalupe Mountains National Park where I’m camped for the night. As I left New Mexico I was reminded of the vastness of West Texas when I passed a sign warning 130 miles until next services. It’s wise to keep an eye on the gas gauge in this part of the country.

The campground at the National Park is pretty basic. It consists of walk in tent sites, one fairly large paved area for RV’s, and a restroom with no showers. It costs $8 for a tent site unless you’ve got a senior citizens pass, then it costs $4. Tonight I have a tent beneath a sky that’s surely full of billions of stars. On a clear dark night West Texas offers some of the best star gazing anywhere in the world. I guess that’s one of the benefits of being so far removed from services.

Guadalupe National Park, aside of a roadside view of the sheer cliff faced El Capitan, has little to offer the non hiker. It’s really a mountain desert hiking park. There’s a nice network of trials that weave throughout the arid mountains for a total of 80 miles. The two highlights are Guadalupe Peak, the highest mountain in Texas, and McKittrick canyon that proves to be a rare oddity with its strangely out of place Maple trees that bust out with color in the fall. Not many people know there are Maples in West Texas!

Tomorrow I plan to do an all day hike and stay for another night. From Guadalupe National Park I’ll continue south to Presidio on the Texas/Mexico border and traverse a road along the Rio Grande to Terlingua on the way to Big Bend National Park. It’s wild, rugged, dusty and remote yet beautiful desert country. It was once the stomping grounds for Apache Indians and Poncho Villa but now it’s more of running grounds for illicit drugs and illegal aliens. For this reason I have no intention whatsoever of crossing the border into Mexico or driving at night. Unfortunately, it simply isn’t safe anymore.

By time I'm done it will take about a week for me to get back to Houston. In a way it’s kind of like a readjustment excursion after my 5 month trip around the world. Whenever I return from long trip that involves a certain about of relatively exotic travel I'm certain to be somewhat changed. Hopefully for the better. After all of the foreign culture, different languages and multitudes of people I meet along the way it’s nice to retreat to a quieter more familiar environs. It gives me a chance to check in and realign myself with the ever constant process of personal growth and change.

Monday, October 24

As the retired Air force biker packed his Harley this morning he told me how he’s ridden in every state but Alaska and the road from Presidio to Bend Bend along the Texas/Mexican border is one of his top 5 favorite rides in the USA. I’ll definitely be headed there tomorrow.

Today my hike in the Guadalupe Mountains took me to the top of Hunter Peak and into an interior forested area known as the Bowl before heading down and out through a patch of colorful Maples in Bear Canyon. The hike took most of the day. With perfect sunny weather it did not disappoint. I took the photo atop the post this morning.