Hello there, fellow adventurers! We’ve had quite the journey exploring some incredible spots lately here in New Mexico, and we’re excited to share the most recent family escapades with you all. Buckle up and join us as we recount our latest adventures through our last city in Texas of San Angelo, The Sacramento Mountains, White Sands National Park, and Carlsbad Caverns!
We’d also like to introduce our new game of “spot the non-truck”, this helped pass miles and miles of oil fields, wind turbines, trucks, fallen-over train compartments and petrol stations hosting Friday night drinks.
First time Boondockers say “What”!
“Dispersed Camping or ‘Boondocking’ is the term given to camping in the United States on public land other than in designated campsites. This type of camping is most common on National Forest and Bureau of Land Management land” Wikipedia
A big highlight of this part of the trip was our first Boondocking experience, where we immersed ourselves in nature, went off grid and lived with the sand, dirt and stars for a few days. Although as wild as we felt the regular take-offs of the F-16s (Fighter Jets) and MQ-9 (Drones) had Tilly and Will running outside with binoculars every few hours. And lets not forget the short seconds we thought the world had ended as two missile tests took place and had us looking for our skins we had just jumped out of.
The Sacramento Mountains are alive, with the sound of ?
Venturing through the Sacramento Mountains was a breath of fresh air, quite literally, especially with Gracie’s new love of chasing lizards, the thrill of biking through majestic mountains and taking cold plunges in the river. We did naively manage to forget we were at 6,939 feet of elevation, so the relaxing refreshing runs we thought we would enjoy ended up in altitude sickness and exhaustion. Thank you Bluey and Paw Patrol for babysitting during our recovery.
Spice and all things nice!
Our very British taste buds went on an adventure with the discovery of Hatch chilis, fresh and surprisingly flavorful! Even for a spice weakling Alice. Who can now attest to putting this in most dishes!
White Sands National Park
White Sands National Park was a revelation, where we learned more about sand than we ever thought possible, AND we actually found it interesting! (Alice found the plant survival strategies incredibly interesting and Will was fascinated about the size of Dire wolves! Talk about Game of Thrones in real life!) We got to look through a special telescope to watch for Solar Flares on the sun, which took Tilly a couple of attempts to learn to not close her eyes when looking through it. In one particular funny moment she perfectly described the sun, but it turned out she actually had her one eye closed that was looking through the scope and her other eye was looking at a picture of the sun next to us.
Carlsbad Caverns
What a place! The elevator / lift down to the caverns was a bit eerie, but the firemen that joined us on the way down were reassuring, once we figured out they weren’t there for a bad reason… Once down and the doors opened, goodness me what a place! It is truly ming boggling to see how much is down there, one of the caves has over 100+ miles of underground trails! Oh and don’t forget the bats! We were to early in the year to fully appreciate their spectacle but the Cave Swallows soaring and dive bombing into the cave made quite a show and Tilly smashing out her bat facts to the Rangers was a proud moment (we think a young Ranger learnt a valuable life lesson when trying to correct a strong willed 3 year old). Did you know that bats come out at night time? And they sleep upside down?
Smokey the Bear was real?!
An evening trip through the charming town of Capitan, was a unique experience of being able to walk everywhere! A rarity in the US. The home and resting place of the famous Smokey the Bear was some good Americana nostalgia alongside the real life cast of Cars taking up residence on the side of town.
The Hiccups
Of course, we don’t want to shy away from the not so fun moments. With a truck warning light, unexpected wind and fire warnings and the unsure moment of are we allowed to drink and be in this water added a little bit of anxiety to this part of the adventure.
As we approach our last few weeks in New Mexico, we find ourselves using an actual map for navigation, a gentle reminder of the luxury of Google Maps, how can a nail length in distance on a map take 3 hours? And while we immerse ourselves in the vast desert plains of New Mexico, dotted with Dollar General stores at every turn, it’s a gentle reminder that amidst our adventurous spirit, phrases like “Muma, I’m starving!” “Muma I gotta pee-pee” “Noooo, Bluey stopped working, you need to fix it”are never going to be too far away.
Until next time, happy trails and safe travels to all!
Our Adventures in Frames 
Leave a comment