Vacation 2022

White Sands National Park / Roswell, New Mexico / Carlsbad Caverns National Park

White Sands National Park is in the Southwest part of New Mexico. Right smack dab in the middle of the White Sands Missile Testing Range. That’s about the best I can say for it.

Roswell, known for its UFO crash is in the Mid-Eastern portion of New Mexico. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any aliens.

There’s nothing around Carlsbad for miles. Probably hundreds of miles. With the exception of the bats, there’s nothing or no reason to be on the surface of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. But man, the cavern!

June 5, 2022

Start – Heading Eastward to White Sands National Park.

5:40 – The gate shack.

10:37 – Snow or sand banks?

17:04 – Sideways view #1.

30:02 – Sideways view #2.

34:00 – Let’s head on out to Roswell.

35:49 – It’s official. We’re in Roswell!

40:30 – Waldrip’s 0; Alien’s 2. Heading on out to Carlsbad Caverns. Caught some “Dirt Devel’s” along the way.

June 6, 2022

45:01 – Carlsbad Caverns Park Entrance.

1:03:03 – At the visitor’s center and entering the cavern.

1:15:57 – Sideways view #3.

1:28:03 – Leaving the park.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone visit White Sands National Park unless you were just going to be passing it as you go to another destination. I saw no reason at all for anyone to go even 30 minutes out of their way to visit it unless they jut wanted to punch their national park card of places visited. I am not saying that the park isn’t valuable as it certainly is in regard to safely hosting rare species of animals and plants. Humans aren’t rare. Unique but not rare. I recommend leaving the park to the animals.

After watching so many documentaries on modern day Roswell, I was so disappointed. I was led to believe that even when the town wasn’t hosting a festival of some sort, that alien decorations would thoroughly adorn the town. Dad and I drove a couple of streets and didn’t see many. There wasn’t even a glow-in-the-dark milkshake at the Dairy Queen. I guess I wouldn’t recommend a Roswell visit unless one knew that a festival was happen at the time of one's visit.

There is literally nothing around Carlsbad or Carlsbad Caverns. It’s dry, dusty, barren land. For hours in all directions as best I could tell. But the cave or cavern at Carlsbad Cavern National Park and the bats in the evening make the visit totally worthwhile. The landscape outside of the cave is the same as around the whole National Park. It’s dry, dusty, barren land. So other than touring the cave and watching the bats, there isn’t anything to do in the park. There’s a couple of trails but nothing of interest on them. You’d just be walking a dry, dusty, barren trail. If you plan it right, half a day is all you need at the park. Take the cave tour in the afternoon, eat a bite in the air conditioning of your car and wait for the bats to come out. The drive to Carlsbad isn’t pretty or scenic but the destination is. This should be on your bucket list!

Vacation 2022

Saguaro National Park

I found the Saguaro National Park(s) to be quite fascinating. I placed the ‘s’ in parenthesis as there are actually 2 distinct locations; one to the East of Tucson, Arizona and the other on the West side.

The saguaro cactus are the ones that look like people standing with their arms held up, as if at gun point. Actually, most of the saguaro, if they are old enough to have the ‘arms’, have more than two arms. The Western Park had more of the traditional looking saguaros, while the Western Park had some with the arms hanging down.

The Western Park seemed more rugged than the Eastern. Everything everywhere in the Western Park appeared to want to get you. The Eastern Park is actually thinner and has more trails and bike paths.

It would have been neat to see the park with the pipe organ cactus, but it was simply to far away from my bucket list and wanna hit parks. Tucson didn’t have anything of real interest to us, so Saguaro National Park(s) was the only reason for us to be here. There is virtually nothing much else around that required our attention. That being said, I would recommend that everyone go and see Saguaro National Park(s) sometime. Simply amazing.

June 4, 2022

Start – We began our Saguaro NP tour in the Western Park. The road that travels to and through the park is a state road, so at time in your in the Western Park and other times you're outside the park. You can pretty much tell when you're in or out by whether or not residential homes are present.

10:34 – We stop to get our first close up view of a Saguaro with some blooms left on it.

21:38 – We’re getting deep into the Western Park now and there are no more residential buildings.

26:50 – The Visitor’s Center of the Western Park.

35:15 - Bajada Loop Drive. A rough rock road that travels through a very thick cactus grove.

39:55 – Sideways video #1.

1:07:55 – Heading on over to the Eastern part of Saguaro National Park.

1:10:43 – Entering Saguaro National Park on the East side of Tucson.

1:22:30 – What was that?

1:28:57 – Hello Mr. Ranger sir.

1:38:36 – On the road again.

1:47:13 – Selfie time.

1:48:47 – Sideways video #2.

1:53:42 – Sideways video #3.

2:03:50 – Goodbye Saguaro National Park.

Would I recommend Saguaro National Park? You bet! Put it on your bucket list.