We continued south through Truth or Consequences and Las Cruces, New Mexico and then crossed into west Texas. The things we remembered most about El Paso is that you can see Ciudad Juarez across the border and the Walmart parking lot we stopped in. When I opened the back door of the Trekker, the strong wind caught the door and almost tore it off the hinges. Walmart food marts were our go to place for groceries and wine throughout this trip. They are numerous, have a standardized lay out and of course, are known for their cheaper prices if not for the quality. Sadly, the Walmart we stopped in here was to be the scene of a major mass shooting of Latinos in 2019. And they said Ciudad Juarez is the more dangerous place.
So we quickly headed out of town and made our way to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and went for an amazing hike.
Somewhere during this week, we had run into an friendly Englishman at a camp ground and chatted about places to see. He mentioned Carlsbad Caverns in SE New Mexico. “Absolutely gobsmack!” he said in referring to these huge underground caverns. Never having heard this term before we wondered what it meant. Was it good or was it bad? After googling it we decided we had to go and see for ourselves.
Pictures fail to capture the beauty and scale of these underground caverns that a river gorged out millions of years ago. Stalagmites and stalagtites and pools of aquamarine coloured water with crystals everywhere. It goes on for miles.
We then headed for the sandiest campground we had ever stayed in. Wow what a different experience this was. In fact it was gobsmack!
mattersofthemoment 