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This morning we went back by Pro-Tech to make sure they used the ABS diag port instead of the chassis diag port to check out the ABS problem. They assured me they tried both ports. I’m still not 100% confident they tried the ABS port but decided enough was enough. We took off for Tucson. Unfortunately it started raining just West of Las Cruces and continued until 8pm here in Tucson. We checked in to Cactus Country RV park. Mostly dominated by long term residents but seems really nice and quiet. It is only 10 miles from Saguaro National Park but a bit further from central Tucson than I like. Tonight we just grabbed a burger and watched a movie. The weather wasn’t good enough to site-see. Tomorrow we will try to see the PIMA Aviation Museum, and the Sonoma Desert Museum of Natural History that combines museum, zoo, and botanical gardens. We are considering either seeing the National Park Saturday morning before heading for Phoenix or staying another night to give us more time. We are still working to a hard schedule of leaving Las Vegas on 2/24 to go skiing at Park City.

We got up early to have the coach at Pro-Tech Diesel. They took our info and promised to look at the air brake leak and the ABS light that has been on since we bought the coach over a year ago. While they worked on the coach we took off for the War Eagles Aircraft Museum. The Museum was really nice with mainly WW2 planes. After the museum we headed back to Las Cruces. We ate at the Cattle Baron. It was another favorite from my work days and remains one of the better Las Cruces restaurants. We then headed to Mesilla and walked the old historic square. Before leaving Las Cruces, we headed out to the Sierra Vista trail head where we had considered staying. Like I feared the relatively small area was already full of campers. It would be a great dry camping spot. We went to pick up the coach at about 5:30. They had repaired the air brake leaks in one day, including procuring two new valves. Unfortunately they didn’t solve the ABS problem and I will see if they can take another look tomorrow. We ended up back in the same KOA parking lot campground.  Hmm…. somehow I don’t seem to have any pictures of the museum.  Bummer.

 

Today we took off for White Sands Missile Range and the White Sands National Monument. I was able to show Donna the Small Missile Range where I spent so much time and you can see the main base from the mountain pass. We continued on to the White Sands Monument. It is really cool. Giant dunes of Gypsum that you can slide down. We both thoroughly enjoy the White Sands. We got back to the coach relatively early so I could diagnose the furnace in nice weather. I would have done this in Carlsbad but it was too cold. Now it’s 70 deg outside and sunny. I disassembled the furnace enough to see the shaft has significant free play along the shaft. I also discovered a piece of wood wedged under the fan, and another housing kludge fastener. I guess both of these were attempts to mask the furnace noise we have been fighting. I believe I need a new fan motor and YouTube showed me exactly how to change it pretty easily. I checked with Camping World and they showed they had the motor in stock but couldn’t find it. I’ll have to wait until Tucson or Las Vegas to get a new motor. The good news is removing the Kludges has, at least temporarily, seriously improved the noise. I’m guessing this is temporary. Afterwards we drove to Texas Roadhouse south of Anthony Texas. It is our favorite chain restaurant and was awesome as usual. Another problem that has been getting gradually worse during our travels is the air brakes seem to be leaking. It was never bad enough to do anything about it…until now. During the last two road segments the leak has gotten worse. Now the air leaks significantly just during a fuel stop, where it used to take a full day or more. Camping World recommended a local shop nearby. I called them and setup a 9 AM appointment for tomorrow.

We departed about 9:30 and headed West toward Las Cruces NM. The drive was easy, and low traffic. We stopped at Guadalupe National Park only 39 miles past Carlsbad Caverns. Not much to see here if you don’t want to commit to a pretty serious hike. There are no roads into or around the park. We took a very short hike to the old Butterfield Stage Coach stop ruins. Not really a “hike”. It was pleasant enough, but not spectacular. Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas and there is a hike to the peak that is probably a 8 hour round trip for those more adventurous.

We continued on through El Paso towards Las Cruces. Unfortunately we were unable to find any RV park openings in Las Cruces and I wasn’t confident the state park dry camping at Sierra Vista trail head would have any openings. We chose to stop at Anthony Texas just over the Franklin mountains from El Paso. There is a Camping World here and I thought it might have furnace parts that would fix our issue. There is also a gravel parking lot called a KOA campground adjacent to Camping World. We are very concerned about getting the furnace to work properly if we intend to continue this Journey long term. A note about Las Cruces. I chose that as our stopping point because I spent 3 years, every other week here supporting the LOSAT program. Donna was stuck home with a new born and 2 year old during that time. I wanted to show Donna around my old stomping grounds. Tonight I took her to Las Posta Mexican restaurant. It is the only surviving Butterfield coach stop. Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Pancho Villa, and other old West characters used to hang out here. The restaurant is nearly identical to my memory from 25 years earlier. We had a great meal in a very historical building. Very cool.

Today we headed for Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The caverns are really great. We took the most popular hike that is a 800 ft elevator ride down to the caverns and a 1.5 miles, 2 hours loop hike in the caverns. We had a really great time. If you are up to a longer hike you can start at the natural entrance and hike down instead of taking the elevator. You can also sign up for Ranger guided tours to less traveled portions of the caverns. We were content with the self-guided 1.5 miles hike. It was awesome. After we returned to town we had a Chili’s. It’s really nice having access to services, restaurants, etc. There was very little to choose from at Big Bend, Terlingua, and Lajitas.

This morning we headed out from Lajitas, TX to Carlsbad NM. We made reservations at the Carlsbad RV Park. The drive took us back through Fort Stockton where we ate a Truck Stop Subway sandwich. The drive was uneventful except that the road from Pecos to Carlsbad was atrocious.  That section of road has more oil development construction than I have ever seen. The road is lined with temporary housing of some sort the entire distance. They appear to be developing many oil wells, running new oil pipelines, and building a new oil refinery. It made for a very rough ride in the RV. The park at Carlsbad was nothing spectacular but very serviceable. We got in about 4pm and replenished supplies at Wal Mart. We got Pizza Inn for dinner and retired for the evening. The park was quiet. Our furnace in the coach has been noisy on and off since Thanksgiving and I continued trying to diagnose. In the interim we bought a better electric heater at Wal-Mart with a thermostat so we could do without the furnace heat Unfortunately, the temps here are predicted to be in the low 20’s for both mornings we are here.

Today we decided to explore the Big Bend Texas State Park. At the visitor center we discovered to go into the Range Station in the middle of the park was about a 2 1/2 hour one-way trip with half on unimproved dirt roads requiring a high-clearance vehicle. While our Jeep qualified, that was a longer drive than we were interested in. The ranger showed us locations for good views and easy trails accessible from Hwy 170. Starting in Laitas, Hwy 170 passes through the park for many (40-ish?) miles. We decided to head that way. This is a VERY scenic drive. It has the highest and steepest highway pass crossing in Texas. That section of road is very pretty with shear canyon walls. The grade is very steep but has only a short ascent and descent both sides. There is a trail we thought about taking called Closed Canyon but opted out. There is a lot of river access and dry camping available along this route. We stopped at one point where the Rio Grande was probably 20 feet wide and up against a sheer canyon wall. Very pretty. Very few people on this route. I highly recommend if you get to Terlingua to take the drive through Lajitas and at least across the pass. It is very beautiful and not a long drive at all.

After the drive through the park, we had lunch at the Candelilla Cafe once again. We returned to the coach and did our laundry. We are preparing to leave in the morning for Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

 

11

 

We headed back in to Big Bend. Our initial destination was Chisos Basin again. On the way into Chisos we saw a Gray Bobcat (Lynx Rufus) cross the road. Very cool. Donna researched where the Window View Trail was and we wanted to see it. It starts right by the Chisos Basin store and is literally only a couple of hundred yards long. It is totally paved and could be done in a wheel chair with little effort.

After the very arduous (NOT!) Window View Trail we headed for East Big Bend. Our first stop was Boquillas Canyon. Nearby is a border crossing where you can pay to cross the Rio Grande in a row boat and visit the Mexican Village of Boquillas. Reviews did not make it sound that great and we would have to leave Maverick in the car so we didn’t try it.
The Boquillas Canyon trail starts with a 102 ft ascent and is about 1.4 miles round trip. It follows the Rio Grande. While pretty, you never really get a good view down the canyon like we did at Santa Elena Canyon. If you are just looking to hike it’s OK, but we felt the effort to scenic ratio wasn’t that great. Mexicans clearly cross the Rio Grande at will here. On the trail was a Mexican man singing and selling trinkets. I’m sure he is from Boquillas. We got very hot on the trail. There was no wind, and direct sunlight. The outside temp was only about 65F. I can’t imagine doing this hike in 100 deg summer weather. When we got back to the car we immediately changed into short sleeve shirts that were much more comfortable for the rest of the day.

After the trail we went to the park at Rio Grande Village. There is nice motorhome camping, a store, gas, and very nice picnic area. We considered staying here when planning this trip but it was already totally booked up. The lack of availability was probably because the other motorhome campground, Cottonwood, was closed at this time. We packed our lunch today and enjoyed the picnic area with only a few other folks.

After our lunch we headed back West. On the way back we stopped at the Hot Springs trail. The trail was about 1 mile round trip. The trail follow cliffs that are very interesting and that have some petrographs. The Hot Spring was truly hot and had three people in it. The springs was a square concrete structure only about 1-2 feet deep. It could hold probably about 8 couples comfortably. The neatest thing is the “springs” basically stick out into the Rio Grande. While we packed our swim gear based on the possible use of the springs, once we experienced the hike in we didn’t want to return dressed for the springs. The hike was enjoyable with or without experiencing the springs. Be aware the road to the springs trail head is very narrow, winding, and pretty rough in spots. Easy in the jeep or a pickup but would not be cool in a normal car. RVs and trailers are prohibited.

After the hot springs we felt we had seen most of Big Bend without committing to much longer hikes than we were interested in. We headed back to Lajitas for a shower and dinner. Refreshed we decided to eat at the highly rated Starlight Theater restaurant. When we arrived we were shocked to see the parking lot full and people waiting outside to be seated. Nowhere else did we experience any crowds. Our backup plan was the High Sierra Bar and Grill right on the highway. We dined on the 2nd floor open air patio. The food was good, the view and weather were great. We were very pleased with our backup plan.

Today we explored West Big Bend National Park. We took the Maverick Road (unimproved gravel) to Santa Elena Canyon. The trail at the canyon was a little bit of a climb at the start of but really beautiful once you get to the end. It is a very dramatic canyon carved by the Rio Grande River.  Afterwards we went to Castalon where there is a visitor center and store. We ate lunch on the picnic tables and afterwards we went to Chisos Basin camping area. Chisos Basin is a really beautiful area surrounded by mountains.  Chisos Basin is higher altitude and has more vegetation including some pine trees. Some of the longer hiking trails start here.  The lost mine trail looked popular based on the parking log. We didn’t do any trails at this time.  We looked for the Window View Trail but didn’t find it.  We left Chisos Basin and went to Panther Junction.  Nothing really there and we were tired so we turned around and headed back to Lajitas.   We had dinner at the Lajitas Resort restaurant called Candelilla Cafe. A very nice place and the burger was excellent.

 

We departed Sonora TX about 0930, got diesel and headed for Lajitas TX and Maverick Ranch RV park.  Lajitas is a short distance West of Big Bend.  We chose it because it is a nice RV resort with amenities. Some of the parks inside Big Bend were closed and what remained was pretty much “dry camping”. We were tired of that after the repair and needed some place nicer. Maverick approved based on the name.