Plans for west texas/New Mexico trip- pls critique
I think this is generally where we want to go but if anyone has any better spots or thought anything on our list would be underwhelming please let me know.
Guadalupe mountain: https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/gumo_hike_guadalupe_peak.htm
Campground for night 1: https://www.nps.gov/gumo/planyourvisit/pine_springs_campground.htm
Carlsbad caverns: https://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm
White sands: https://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm
Plan: Leave Austin at 5:00 am (6 am at the absolute latest). If we take 1 car we will probably end up taking Carter's Jeep but if we take 2, Rourke’s will probably be the other one. Doesn’t really matter whose we take, just not mine or stan’s. It’s about a 7 hour 45 minute drive so we should get there between 1-2, with stops maybe around 3. This will give us enough time to find parking and everything and also find where we are camping that night. We should have more than enough time to get to the top. We will probably end up hiking to the bottom in the dark so make sure to bring flashlights and/or headlamps.
Leave camp grounds around 7-8. Then head to Carlsbad caverns, it’s about a 30-45 minute drive from one national park to the other, which may change depending on traffic. If we get there around 9 that’s perfect. There are 2 different trails, the big room trail and the nature entrance trail. The big room trail takes about an hour and a half (according to the website) and is the important trail. The other one is the nature entrance trail and it is about 1.25 miles and takes about an hour (also according to the website). The good thing about this trail is that once you walk down there is an elevator going back up because the entire 1.25 miles is going down 750 feet so walking back up would be like walking up the stairs of the twin towers. Depending on time we may only be able to do one of them (subject to change)
We need to make sure we are heading out of Carlsbad by 1 at the latest. White Sands is about 3-4 hours away from there and the park closes at sunset so we just need to make sure to get there around 5, sunset is around 7. If we get there at 5 it’ll probably take about 20-30 minutes to find a spot to sit down and park. This gives us about an hour and a half to mess around before sunset. Then after the sun goes down that’s when we start to light stuff on fire and explode some stuff. Then we can either drive straight back or find another place to camp, up to everyone else Idrc. If we drive straight back that night, we will get in around 6am. It would probably be better to camp somewhere that night just so nobody is driving that late. We could just have people sleep as soon as we start driving and halfway through we switch. I would prefer just driving back then we can sleep all day when we get back but that’s just me.