Carlsbad, NM

JustThe plan for today was to camp at Guadalupe National Park on the Texas, New Mexico border.  We intended to backpack in to the back country and tent camp somewhere around Guadalupe Peak.  As we approached the escarpment from Texas, we had a great view of the mountains.  It reminded me both of the Pyrenees and the Drakensburg Mountains.  But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

We left Fort Stockton Texas and headed Northwest toward the Park.  Along the way we went through the Permian basin.  Holy crap.  We called it the Fracking Freeway.  The Permian basin is one of the major US sites for hydraulic fracturing.  I told Frances that the scene we saw is what I imagine the US might have looked like when gearing up its industry for WW II.  The road was filled with trucks hauling pumps, diesel engines, water, pipes, excavation equipment, bulldozers, graders.   For miles we passed oil fields, many burning the natural gas that the were venting.  Temporary worker housing was all around Pecos.  It was interesting to note the older businesses that were there before the boom, most of them were shuddered and failing.  Around them were brand new business, sparkling gas stations, restaurants, etc.  Honestly, I don't know that I've ever seen so much economic activity associated with a single industry.  They use water in fracking, and of course, this part of Texas is not noted for the availability of water.  We passed dozens of water collection stations.  I'm assuming, someone hauls in it, stores it, and then the drillers buy it by the truckload.   We made at turn in a small town called Orla where a larger landfill site had been created to collect trash, etc. from the operations.  Truly a "you gotta see it to believe it" stretch of highway.

By the time we go to the Park, there was no camping available.  I have never seen such a camping site in a National Park.  The had  basically taken the parking lot at the trail head and turned it into an RV campground without any utilities.  The trailers were crammed in a small space and a picnic table had been placed beside them.  I was not terribly disappointed that we weren't able to stay there.  They directed us toward a Bureau of Land Management lot that could be used as overflow camping.  When we got there, the dirt access road was pretty rough, and I'm not sure we could have successfully gotten in and out. So, we kept rolling.  Frances got on the phone and found us our first, commercial RV site of the trip in the town of Carlsbad.  We could only get a site with water, but that's okay.  We can run off the battery for a day or so.  I plan to pick up solar panels at some point.  I figured that I'd have better luck buying them out here where the use of solar is more common.

Our spot here is fine.  We have a small shade tree, and since there is no electricity, we have no neighbors.  Frances took advantage of the facilities and did a couple of loads of laundry.  Since they have WiFi, I can do this update to the blog on the laptop.

Tomorrow, we are going to drive to the Park, and hike into the peak.  We learned of this on our Coast to Coast bicycle trip.  There is a riparian ecosystem in the middle of the desert and we can expect to find maples and conifers once we reach the proper altitude.  It is a four hour hike in and out, so it will be a long day.  We will sleep back at our RV park in Carlsbad tomorrow and then move on. 

On Monday, I hope to visit with my friend, Jeff Kramer, who took me on my first backpacking trip to the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.  Then we will proceed up toward Santa Fe to visit a fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, George Stengren.  From there, Taos, Monument Valley, Flagstaff and then finally Tucson.  Our plan was to be in Tucson by May, so it looks doable.  I expect some detours and surprises along the way.

The weather is beautiful, but better than that, I heard these words from Frances today, "Except for having and raising Maggie, I don't think I've ever been this happy".  That's a pretty good place to be.

Zoom in on the sign by our spot.