On Our Way to Carlsbad…With A Bonus!

Our standard work on travel day involves pulling up the route to make sure we’re headed in the right direction. This morning, as Ben was looking at the route, he exclaimed “Holy macaroni, there’s a whole other National Park I’ve never heard of, right on the way to Carlsbad!”

And that’s how we found ourselves at Guadalupe Mountains National Park!

Which is in Texas.

Prior to checking the route, we didn’t realize we would need to leave New Mexico, hop into Texas so that we could get back into New Mexico to our final destination of Carlsbad, New Mexico. 🤠 Surely you can understand our confusion. That southern border of New Mexico just snuggles right into the armpit of Texas lol

Either way, we left mountain time this morning in Las Cruces, entered central time for a bit, and then crossed back into mountain time when we crossed BACK into New Mexico just west of Carlsbad.

We were very happy to have had the opportunity to visit Guadalupe! Not only does Guadalupe mark the tenth national park we’ve visited on this trip, but it’s beautiful and instantly makes us want to come back!

We were on Highway 62, a two lane highway, for most of our drive to Carlsbad, today. That highway makes a dead straight beeline right for Guadalupe Mountains NP. So, for at least 50 miles, we were able to watch the mountains grow larger and larger! As we finally came around the corner, the highest point in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, standing at 8,751 feet, was standing there looking huge and imposing and raw and stern. As we passed by, it felt like we needed to be on our best behavior.

We spent a half hour or so at the visitor center and we took a short walk to see some historic sights. Of most interest was the fact that there were no roads going into the park.

When the park system first got cranked up back in 1919, they decided that they wanted to make the parks accessible, but only at a bare minimum in terms of roads. We want parks, not parkways.

Then, the 1920’s and 1930’s saw the explosion of both automobiles (estimated 23 million cars on the road by the 30’s) and the highway system thanks to New Deal funding and CCC and WPA after 1933. Not only were the highways built to move Americans around the country, but many massively challenging roads and tunnels and buildings and campgrounds were built in our national parks and we are still using them today!

In the 60’s and 70’s, it started becoming a traffic problem for the parks. So, they decided to stop, for the most part, punching roads through new national parks unless it is very well justified. Which is fantastic from a conservation standpoint. If you want to see Guadalupe, and you should, you can only see it by horseback or by hiking. That’s it.

Had Guadalupe become a national park in the 1920’s or 1930’s, there’s no doubt that there would be a road going right up to Guadalupe Peak constructed by the CCC. And it would be an awesome drive. And it would be crowded. Heck, I would have gone up there in the truck. And that is the problem that the NPS decided to solve back in the 70’s.

We made plans to come back and camp here and try a hike or two on another trip. We were wholly unprepared today to even step foot here. This is a serious hiking place. No water, not many other hikers and the trails aren’t messing around. Even the “moderate” hikes look challenging.

Future return plans made, we got back on the highway and were on our way east again. As we passed by the mountain range, we could see that the weather was moving in. There was an entire waterfall of clouds just pouring over the top of the mountains from the west to the east. Like a slow motion tidal wave swallowing the mountains from the top down in a thick layer of grey and white clouds.

It was very cool looking. We tried to get some shots while driving by but it just wouldn’t come out. We hope we never forget how cool that looked.

Clouds behind us, we crossed back into New Mexico and were right on top of our destination for today, Carlsbad Caverns! Technically, Whites City.

Apparently, there was a dude named Charlie White, who came to the area in the 1920’s and saw an opportunity. He purchased all of the land adjacent to the Carlsbad National Park entrance and without a whole lot of capital, he built “White’s Cavern Camp” to serve as a rest for travelers visiting the caverns. It did very well and it grew quickly with the park’s popularity.

The closest city to the park entrance is Carlsbad NM itself, about 20 miles away. So old Charlie really had a lock on the local economy.

There are plenty of things to do here now.

You can stay at White’s City Cavern Inn, or the White’s City RV Park (like us), you can go to the White’s City Gift shop or get fuel at White’s City Fuel, or even do your laundry at White’s City Laundromat. Hungry? Have you tried White’s Cactus Cafe? Or a burrito from White’s Gift Shop? No, not that one, the other White’s City Gift Shop in the Bat Cave..

They have built quite an enterprise here. And they are maximizing their space. Our RV spot is delicately perched right next to the main drag going into Carlsbad, so we when leave to go to the park in the morning, all we have to do is turn the wheel to the left and go, we are already right on the road.