Southwest US in 2024

I am a lucky man. To take a road trip with Leslie. To enjoy our company, the scenery, the audiobooks, the conversation. To experience the awe and amazement of the places we visited.

Saturday – April 6

The trip started heading south from home, into the northern panhandle of Texas. Across the vast desert as the car dipped into valleys, peering over the crest of the next hill stood massive, giant arms of windmills driven by powerful wind gusts that were a prominent feature of the weather that day.

We stayed in Lubbock that night where I enjoyed Oyster shots at Cancun Mexican Restaurant; highly recommended!

Sunday

The next day we continued on the road to Johnson City where months prior we reserved a yurt for the next three nights. Johnson City because it is right in the path of totality for the eclipse. The yurt because prices at all hotels and b&b’s were 10x their normal as all landlords in the path of totality took full advantage of their geographical happenstance. And besides, Leslie loves to stay in yurts.

Monday

While we appreciated an invite to join a friend and her clan to watch the eclipse, we instead were able to secure tickets at Westcave Winery for some wine, smoked pig, live music and the company of other enthusiasts. That was a ton of fun!

After a wonderful day viewing the eclipse at Westcave Winery, we took a drive to Pedernales Falls State Park. What a beautiful place that was for an afternoon visit.

Tuesday

We were expecting some precipitation on Tuesday so we decided to take a drive to Cedar Point Recreation Area. In the first part of the drive we passed through some beautiful towns such as Llano (not sure how they pronounce that in Texas). It was a beautiful drive but as it continued the promised precipitation showed up… lots of it! I can’t recall ever driving (or pausing) through such a torrential downpour!!

We headed back to Johnson City to grab lunch at a place where the reviews were good: Pecan Street Brewing. Lunch was excellent.

After lunch we headed back to the yurt where we later enjoyed a lightning storm with more heavy downpour and a DIY spaghetti dinner.

I won’t mention the visit to the hot tub outside the yurt when we decided to go back inside because of the incredible intensity of the lightning and the rain and how the electric combination lock on the door seemed to not be working while we were outside in our bathing suits, in the cold, dark, very stormy night with car keys and phones securely locked inside the yurt so we had no access to them, and we were the only people there in the gated property with no exit capability without our car, and no other shelter than the yurt that we couldn’t get into. Oh, I guess I did mention it.

Wednesday

On to Carlsbad, New Mexico to see bats and caverns. We got to Carlsbad in time to check into our hotel and drive to the amphitheater at the entrance to the caverns to see the sun go down and watch the bats swarm out to the impending darkness to hunt for moths and other tasty morsels. That was very cool.

Thursday

We returned to the caverns Thursday morning for our turn to go explore the underground for ourselves. We returned to the amphitheater and continued on the path that meandered for over a mile, down 750 feet underground, where we intersected another trail that looped for about a mile and a half, completely submerged below the Earth’s surface.

After exploring the caves, we got back in our 4-wheeled vehicle and as Steppenwolf once said, we “head out on the highway”, DIRECTION: Toward White Sands National Park. DESTINATION: Cloudcraft, for the night.

Friday

Cloudcraft was a very nice town. We enjoyed our evening and a one night stay. But, we had business to attend to at White Sands National Park, so in the morning we spent about an hour checking out Cloudcraft and continued our drive to White Sands.

White Sands National Park was spectacular! We started our visit by watching the video on how the geological features were formed. It was very informative, and not too corny; I really liked the video. Outside, the weather was perfect. Once we understood the lay of the land, we decided to venture to the furthest point first. White Sands is the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. A great explanation of how the sand was formed can be found here. Because of how the sand is blown in, this furthest point in to drive offers dunes with almost no vegetation, compared to areas further downwind, as vegetation has more time to settle in there.

As we worked our way back toward the entrance we saw more of the type of vegetation that settles in.

Not to mention a cool Astroid City looking park bench.

On the road again (sung by Willie Nelson – and sometimes me)… We spent that night in Winslow, Arizona – because that’s a place in the other song (if you’re an Eagles fan – not so much for me – but that song is OK). Winslow, because it’s on the way to Las Vegas, where I had to work for four days. Can you say “Vacation Interruptus”?

Saturday – April 13

Yes – we headed to Las Vegas, but before leaving Winslow… we wanted to check out a place Leslie knew about, which is where we should have stayed… but we didn’t. Next time. Introducing, La Posada.

Viva… Las Vegas.

After enjoying our introductory evening by walking the strip, playing a few hands of blackjack, and hopping on the big ferris wheel, we wrapped up the day.

Sunday – Wednesday in Las Vegas

Mark

• Worked
• Snuck out for a couple dinners with Leslie.

Leslie

• Went to the Atomic Museum
• Visited the Botanic Gardens
• Enjoyed the Cactus Garden/Chocolate Factory
• Explored the Bellagio
• Ventured into the streets of Las Vegas, and got threatened more than once by the local inhabitants

Wednesday Afternoon

Leslie was able to get tickets to the latest tour of Hoover Dam, and I was able to be done with my work in time to rush out of Las Vegas to go see the Dam. What a fascinating piece of work it is. The project is amazing, and the implications of the dam are complex for many groups of people. Nevertheless, we got the premium tour and learned a lot.

We spent that night at Lake Las Vegas, a very nice place to visit.

Thursday

To begin our trip back to Colorado, we wanted to check out the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. The place is amazing. We saw lots of beautiful geology, petroglyphs and wild life.

There was an eeriness about the place. At times it felt like the rocks were watching us.

We spent the night in Page, Arizona – it was a beautiful evening. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the sunset at Sunset 89 restaurant.

Friday

We got an early start and wanted to check out Glen Canyon Dam. Since we were in Page, it was right there.

Then we headed out to Monument Valley. Stunning!

And on to the City of Mexican Hat and Gooseneck State Park.

And from there we drove, and drove. We thought about visiting one of our favorite haunts, Goblin State Park, but by time we got to Hanksville, the day had already been quite long, so we pushed straight through to Green River, where we spent the last night on the road.

Saturday – April 20

We made it home, safe and sound, early on Saturday.

That was a very fun trip with lots of long driving days.

Thanks for checking out the story.