San Antonio and Alamo, Texas

We drove from Louisiana to San Antonio, Texas, which was one of our planned destinations. We went to see the Alamo and to use it as a lesson on American history. We took the paid tour of the Alamo and were a little disappointed as most of the tour was outside of the walls of Alamo and we could have read most of that ourselves. There was good movie about the history of the Alamo inside of the fort that the kids enjoyed.

Alamo

Riverwalk

Riverwalk

We also walked River street which was nice, but we ended up at Schillo’s for lunch. It was a cold day and Eva did not want to sit outside for lunch. Most of the restaurants on River street had only outside seating. Schillo’s is a place known for their root beer, so we had to try a pitcher, which was huge. The kids are always happy to eat somewhere other than the camper.

Somewhere in Texas overlooking the desert:

Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

The next day we drove to Guadalupe mountains, which turned out to take 3 hours longer then expected. We hit road construction, tons of oil trucks on the roads and some not so nice roads. Eva drove on most of the ugly roads while Brent was teaching the kids. The terrible long drive was worth it. We loved it here. We stayed in the little campground in the National park (no hook ups, no reservations) and it was pretty quiet and isolated. After a quick stop at the visitor center we attempted a late afternoon hike to The Devils Den. We never made it as it got late but he kids wanted to get of the trail after they heard there might be Mountain Lions around. Before we went to sleep we all went outside for a quick look at the stars. Without any light pollution they were amazing. That night was fairly noisy from the 60 mph wind gusts that shook the camper but we all slept OK.

The Next morning the kids all earned their first junior ranger badge. Kids can earn these in all the National parks around America learning about nature, hiking etc. They all got officially sworn in and had to recite the oath.

Later we drove couple of miles to McKittrick canyon for a hike and it was great. We all hiked 4.8 miles, which is the longest hike they have ever done. It was a pretty impressive distance especially for our youngest, Makai. We crossed some steams, looked for fossils and walked through beautiful canyon where all the sedimentary layers in rock were visible as it was carved over millions years. The scenery and views were unbelievable and we saw only a couple of people on the trail. We would have loved to stay longer but we have to head back east and get closer to home to take care of some medical issues. Off to Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow.

Once done with hiking we couldn’t resist and went camping on BML land a couple miles outside of Carlsbad Caverns National park. We drove up a windy rocky path onto higher ground overlooking the desert. Again we got a view! I am going to miss that. Our best campsites are usually in state parks or out in the middle of nowhere, just like this spot. Don’t take me wrong, beeing hooked up with electricity, water & sewer is nice, but rarely is it so peaceful and offering the vistas as parks or wilderness do.

The view out of our camper overlooking the desert in New Mexico: