Week 48: four national park units in a single week!
Life on the vanlife rollercoaster from New Mexico to Texas.
Hello, friends! Hi, fam! We’re back with another update on our grand advanture! It’s hard to believe it’s been 48 weeks since we sold our house in Austin, Texas to travel full time. I still can’t believe that we’re living our dream!
When we left off last Sunday we were at National Park unit #1 for the week, Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. We saw that a big dust storm was heading our way so we decided to head for the Capitan Mountains.
We just made our way through Santa Fe when the storm hit! The wind was pummeling the van and kicking up dust everywhere. A few hours later — after we had passed through, thankfully — some of the highways were closed due to low/no visibility.
After a brief stop at the Smokey Bear Museum in Capitan, New Mexico we headed to the Baca Campground in the Smokey Bear District of Lincoln National Forest.
Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico
There were plenty of spots in the campground, so we picked one that looked like it would have the least amount of dust and waited out the storm. Then 2 nights later we headed up to disperse camp in the Capitan Mountains for 2 more nights.
It was an awesome spot near the Pierce Canyon Trailhead with mountain views in all directions!
We used the Peak Finder app to try to figure out what they were! My favorite was Sierra Blanca since we saw it when we were camping in Sacramento District of Lincoln National Forest last summer.
Since we were camped near the trailhead of course we had to go for a hike! Once we were up in the forest we kept hearing a beautiful bird and used the Merlin app to ID it — it was a Grace’s Warbler! So cool! The forest smelled so good — ponderosa pine and junipers. I wanted to keep on hiking forever.
First Weekly Low on the Vanlife Rollercoaster
And then we hit our first weekly low on the vanlife rollercoaster: I was in the middle of making dinner and water suddenly stopped coming out of the kitchen faucet midstream! Our water pump had been acting up and making strange noises and I was afraid that it had finally kicked the bucket, but J did some “percussive maintenance” — AKA he beat on it with a hammer — and it suddenly the water started slowly flowing again! Whew!
We asked a friend who lives in Alpine, Texas if we could have a replacement water pump shipped to her house and she said no problem. Thanks Liz, you really saved us!
We wished we had more time in the Capitans — gonna have to come back someday!
Thursday we broke camp and after a 3.5 hour drive we made it to…
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Here’s a funny story: I posted a picture of New Mexico Piñyon Coffee on Instagram and a friend from California saw it and asked where we were — we told her we were near Capitan, New Mexico and heading to Guadalupe Mountains National Park and here they were in Carlsbad! So we made a slight change of plans and headed to National Park unit #2 of the week: Carlsbad Caverns!
Even though cellphone cameras have come a really long way, my photos totally don’t do the caverns justice! But here are a few favorites:
We all stayed to watch the Bat Flight and while we did get to see some, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as when we were here about 10 years ago. (Note: no photography is allowed during the bat flight.)
The main thing was getting to see my friends Gail and Michael, and making a new friend Shirley who was with them, too! Definitely a high point on the vanlife rollercoaster!
Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas
Then it was on to National Park Unit #3 for the week, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, where we camped at the Pine Springs Campground. It was also crazy to think that this was our first time back in Texas since June of last year!
We’ve been here a bunch of times and decided to hike somewhere we hadn’t before — the Tejas Trail from the Pine Springs side! (We’ve hiked part of it from the Dog Canyon side already — someday we’ll have to hike the whole way to connect them.)
Before I show you more trail pics, here’s a bit about the park, from the park website:
The Guadalupe Mountains are part of a mostly buried 400-mile-long U-shaped fossil reef complex, Capitan Reef, which extends through a large area of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The longest exposed stretch of Capitan Reef, 12 miles of which is in the park, extends from Guadalupe Mountains National Park northeast almost to the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico, a distance of almost 40 miles. This 260-million- to 270-million-year-old reef is one of the world’s finest examples of an ancient reef system. The fossil-bearing strata of the park are also associated with the rich “oil patch” of the Delaware Basin of west Texas. Three internationally significant geological stratotype sections and points and numerous type sections of rock are present in the park.
These limestone soils were like coming home in more ways than one — the plants are all super familiar from our time living in Austin — like seeing old friends. The Texas madrone trees were all blooming and they smelled so good!
We stopped for a snack break in the shade of a madrone and I spotted a claret cup cactus blooming away!
It was so beautiful I had to do a quick sketch:
And then! J climbed up a nearby rock and found another claret cup! So cool!
Just wow!
All too soon we had to head back down the trail.
Things are looking mighty dry around here — according to the U.S. Drought Monitor we’re in D4 / Exceptional Drought. Hope this area gets some rain soon!
Davis Mountains, Texas
Saturday morning we broke camp early and headed to the Davis Mountains where we spent the night at the Lawrence E. Wood Picnic Area.
We’ve stayed at this area before and love it because it’s right next to The Nature Conservancy’s Davis Mountains Preserve.
Of course we had to hike the Madera Canyon Trail and see what we could see!
Turns out things are even more droughty here than they are did in the Guads. There are so many dead and dying junipers and pines. It really made me sad — and a little nervous — it’s like a wildfire waiting to happen.
I spotted this cute lil guy getting ready to bloom:
And we also spotted another claret cup getting ready to bloom:
Of course I had to do another sketch, right? Just one of the reasons I always keep a sketch kit with me, including a trusty Art Toolkit Demi palette. I’m honored to be a Brand Ambassador for Art Toolkit and they’ve given me a code to share with you: use code LISAFAN10 for 10% off your purchase of an ArtToolkit, palette, or mixing pans. I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you when you use the code — thank you for your support.
That night at camp we got a few sprinkles of rain — look at this cool cloud after the storm:
Hope the area gets some more rain — and soon!
Fort Davis, Texas // Second Weekly Low on the Vanlife Rollercoaster
Sunday was a big day — just look at everything we did:
First we broke camp at Lawrence E. Wood and drove to the town of Fort Davis.
Then we hit another low on the vanlife rollercoaster when we stopped to do laundry at Davis Mountain Laundromat: the dryers melted and shrunk our clothes. I made sure that they were on medium heat, but when I opened the door to take them out they were super hot. OH NO! Our fleeces and most technical clothes all shrunk — I can now wear J’s fleeces, but he’ll have to get new ones. Some things even melted/burnt! My favorite hiking shorts — that aren’t made anymore — went from being 7” long to 5”. The sleeves on my sun hoodies don’t cover my wrists. My cotton tees are all wearable but weirdly shaped. I’m so mad and sad. We’re trying to figure out how to order more, but it’s hard when you don’t have a permanent address. :(
We stopped and had lunch at Stone Village Market — I was glad that I didn’t know just how bad the clothes had shrunk yet and could enjoy my sandwich — they make the best sandwiches, y’all!
After stocking up on groceries at Porter’s (old name, it’s now Lowe’s Market!) we headed to Alpine to stop at my friend’s house to pick up the replacement water pump — the pump is still putting out water after J beat it into submission but it’s a slow trickle and we’re worried it might go at any moment!
Then we got a few vegan specialty items at Blue Water and headed to…
Big Bend National Park, Texas
We drove through Terlingua and came in the western entrance to Park unit #4 for the week, Big Bend, and my heart soared when I spotted the Chisos Mountains — it’s like coming home!
See that oddly shaped peak in the middle of the photo? That’s Casa Grande Peak — more on that later!
It was 97 degrees F down in the desert, and as we drove up into the mountains the temps started falling, yay! 97 felt so hot — I lost my desert mojo over the winter!
We had to make a quick stop to take a picture of my favorite sign:
And then it was up to the Chisos Basin Campground, where our campsite looks out over Casa Grande Peak!
Temps went down to 82 degrees — much better!
Read If You Love National Parks
With everything going on in the world today it’s hard to keep up with what’s happening with the National Parks and our public lands, including Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management units. Make no mistake, they’re under attack by the current administration. Help spread the word!
Here are some trusted resources that you can use:
The 5Calls app: this makes it super easy to call your senators and reps. Here’s the call to action for our public lands.
More Than Just Parks created a Threatened Public Lands Map to track what is going on with OUR public lands. If you look at the map you’ll see that most public lands are out west. I didn’t know that much about public lands until we started traveling full time in the van — and it blew my mind how many amazing public lands are owned by me and you. But for how long and what will happen to them is also up to us. More Than Just Parks has a wealth of articles and info, too.
The National Parks Conservation Association is a nonprofit that whose goal is to protect and enhance America's National Park System for present and future generations. They have so much good information and calls to action.
We have to keep up the pressure, keep protesting and calling our representatives. Because once mining, drilling, and logging happen the land will never be the same again. And to make things clear, when land is opened up for development the company gets the profits — not the US government.
That’s a Wrap!
That’s a wrap for this week. We’ll be here at my beloved Big Bend National Park for a while yet, and I can’t wait to go hiking. And figure out what to do about our shrunken wardrobe!
See you next week as the vanlife rollercoaster rolls on! — Lisa, Jason, and Walter-the-Van
Your Week is a good read I look forward to every 7 days. Thank you for your sacrifice of time and mental energy to share so generously. The joys as well as the bummers! I absolutely love your hiking sketch pages! They inspire me. I’m trying to find the post where you listed the current colors in your Demi palette. Help? Happy travel-living to you and Jason and your faithful
Walter.
Thanks for sharing the post and the great photos. I'm also nervous about the future of our public lands. Also, I can't wait to try out the peak finder app. I wish everyone understood what a vast legacy they share in our public lands.