Stop 6: Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe! Named the highest point in Texas (which isn't like a huge competition, if you could imagine). So, Guadalupe National Park was like an hour drive from Carlsbad, so after we left the caverns we did a quick dip over here. They had a few different hikes, but all of the more chill hikes were like "eh" views. The most famous hike (the one with the best view) takes you all the way to the top of the highest peak, but that hike was like 8 miles or something like that so J and I were like nah. It would be a sick view though if you were feeling up to it!

After our quick excursion to Guadalupe, our next stop was White Sands National Park, which consisted of a fairly long drive through guess where.... NEW MEXICO AGAIN BABY! We decided to take scenic drive to this next destination. One, because it sounded pretty according to the park ranger. Two, we were gonna run out of gas in Middle of Nowhere, Texas before we got to White Sands, which is just a no. So, scenic drive it is.

To our surprise, this drive was actually not as bad as every other New Mexico highway! Taking us through Lincoln National Forest almost the entire duration of the drive, it was surprisingly super pretty. We also learned that Smoky the Bear originated in Lincoln National Forest to help with fire danger. How cute. I saw a billboard of Smoky looking like... thirst-trap Smoky? I dunno, he was in jeans and like shirtless but JACKED. It was weird.

We also drove through a little town/area called Cloudcroft which had a teensy little ski resort! The town itself looked really cute and the area was much better than anything else we'd seen in New Mexico. It was getting dark though so we really couldn't stay to hang around since we needed to make it to our camping spot. Eventually, we made it to our camping spot in Alamogordo (right outside of White Sands). It was fairly dark when we got there but it was pretty easy to navigate the campsite. And we weren't the only ones camping there which is always nice! That being said, this was the first night we camped in wind. So we did think someone was trying to break in and kill us when the wind started goin a lil crazy. Also, our camping spot was at a cute little lake but turns out, the water was toxic. Lmao. We were next to a military base and a missile testing range, so thee water was literally waste water. Oh well! It was a nice view to wake up to.

Later, losers!!!!!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO,

Drew