Camping Out in Big Bend

Day 114 - Big Bend, TX/Carlsbad, NM/Alamagorgo, NM - SNOW and COLD:

Well so much for the early hike. We got up at 7am to gusty winds, snow on the ground, and fog that you couldn't see through. It was CRAZY. Thankfully we had packed up almost all of camp the night before so it didn't take us long to get the car ready and head out. We were sad that we didn't get to hike the leaning rock trail but again it's just a reason to come back!

Our original plan was to head to El Paso, TX but at the last minute the plan changed and we headed to Carlsbad, NM to see the Carlsbad Caverns. As you can see in the pictures these caverns were not quite like the Luray Caverns and were more limestone. They were cool to look at but not quite as spectacular (IN MY OPINION) as the Luray Caverns. We walked through the natural entrance down to the big room. The natural entrance descends about 750 feet. The caverns used to be a reef in the ocean and you can see some of the effects of the ocean flow on rocks within the caverns. It is crazy to think that people used to walk through these caverns with little light and no trail. I can't even imagine it. In fact the caverns offer a tour where you can walk through in the pitch black. It was a nice walk through and thankfully for the sake of our legs we did not have to walk out of the caverns...there is an elevator that takes you back up the 750ft in less than a minute.

From Carlsbad we headed to Alamagordo, NM. We booked a hotel so that we could shower and do some laundry. We plan to visit the White Sands National Memorial tomorrow!

Day 113 - Big Ben, TX Sunny and Upper 70's:

We awoke early again today, had a nice breakfast and then hopped in the car for our days adventure. We headed west this time toward Castalon and the Santa Elana Canyon. On our first day it was recommended that we do The Chimney Trail. It's a desert "hike" which was something neither of us had ever done. It was a six mile round trip "hike" to a series of "Chimney's" and a beautiful view of Santa Elana Canyon. The reason I put "hike" in quotations is that it was more of a walk through the desert. I think of hiking as up hill and strenuous. This was flat and long. The Chimneys were neat and even had some ancient writings on them. We didn't stay long as we wanted to get back and continue to the canyon. We went right to Santa Elana Canyon and as with the hot springs, we were not able to get to the trail because of the high water. You could have waded across as we learned that some people did but the rangers let us know that this was not recommended. Ben wanted to really badly...I didn't. I told him I'd wait if he wanted to go but he decided against it! We figure it's just a reason to come back because the photos look AMAZING and I'd really like to see the view. Our last hike of the day was The Blue Creek (Red Rock) Trail. We walked down into a valley where the Homer Wilson Ranch was located and kept walking until we found the Red Rocks. I was not such a fan of this trail. I was very skittish the entire time feeling that of all the trails this was the one where they bear would in fact eat me! Ben was fine and promised to protect me but it didn't seem to help! The rocks were beautiful and reminded me of Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. We headed back to the car and made our way back to camp. Our plan was to have dinner and then go watch the sunset from the Window View Trail. We got the dinner, we walked the trail, but we missed the sunset. They should write on their info that you need to get there well before sunset if you actually want to see anything! It was another early night as we knew that inclement weather was on the way and we wanted to get a hike in early before heading out of the park!

Day 112 - Big Bend, TX - Sunny and Upper 60's to Low 70's:

We woke up pretty early...well Ben did. I got up around 9am and had some breakfast. We had stopped at the visitor center on our way in and so had an idea of where we wanted to hike. We made our way to the Lost Mine Trail first. It was about a 5 mile round trip hike and we enjoyed every bit of it. When we reached the top it was like we could see forever. The scenery almost felt fake as we looked at it but it wasn't. We made our way back down and headed back to the campsite for lunch. Ben grabbed his fishing pole and box and we made our way east in the park to the Rio Grande Village for some additional trails and new scenery. It was quite a temperature change. When we left Chisos basin it was around 60 degrees and by the time we got to the Rio Grande area it was closer to 75. We went straight to the visitors center so Ben could get his fishing licsence and then made our way to the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail. It was a bit disappointing as there wasn't much nature to be seen but it was a nice walk and a different look than where we were staying. From there we headed to Bosquillas Canyon Trail. From both of these trails you can see the Mexican community of Bosquillas. It is a unique sight to know that just across the river is a whole different country! As we walked there were some signs of members of the Mexican community making their way across the river (illegally) as they tried to sell souvenirs. We had been instructed not to touch or take any of these things and to report it to the rangers. One was kind of funny though. As we walked through the Canyon we came upon a cup that said "tips for singing Mexican Victor." A few steps later and we could hear him across the river singing away. He was very polite but as instructed we just kept walking. The trail was unique in that parts of the Canyon trail were rock and others were sandy. It made for an interesting walk. Ben made sure to touch the river...it was VERY cold. I was rather disappointed. With a name like Rio GRANDE I expected it to be big like the Mississippi and it wasn't...Oh Well! Our last hike of the day was the Hot Springs Trail. We had been informed much to Ben's dismay that we would not be able to go in the hot springs because of a release of water from a dam on the river. The water levels were about 3-5 feet higher than normal and so the hot springs were actually under water. Ben was sad but there wasn't a whole lot we could do!! We headed back to camp and Ben made another great dinner. We hit the sack early again tired from our hiking and excited for another day ahead!

Day 111 - Odessa, TX/Big Bend, TX - Sunny and Upper 60's:

We didn't really do too much today other than drive to Big Bend. It was a LONG, BORING drive through oil country as I am going to refer to it...everywhere you look there were oil rigs in the fields and some places we passed through actually had a terrible odor of oil as we drove by. A quick note...if you ever travel there make sure you get gas BEFORE you get to Marathon. You can top off in Marathon but they will RIP YOU OFF with gas prices. We finally arrived in Big Bend National Park with the plan to set up and go for a hike..it didn't work out quite that well as we got there a little later than we had thought we would and so we set up camp and cooked a nice dinner. We camped in the Chisos Basin area which was SPECTACULAR. We were surrounded by mountains and gorgeous scenery. We enjoyed the nice weather before heading to bed early so as to get a good start on our first day in the park!

Day 110 - Dallas, TX/Odessa, TX - Sunny Mid 60's:

We got an early start today at our hotel in Dallas. We didn't have too much on the agenda other than a haircut for myself and touring the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium. I was fortunate that Laura's (for those of you who don't know her...she's a great friend and a great hairdresser...only the second person to ever cut my hair) aunt Melanie lives in Dallas and is also a hair dresser. I made an appointment with her and was so happy to leave with shorter hair. It's a lot to try and take care of long hair while on the road...the shorter cut is making life much easier. It was nice to see her again as the last time I saw her was at Laura's wedding!

Once my hair was all done we packed up and headed to Arlington, TX home of the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, and Six Flags. It is quite a little town, buzzing with fun, sports, and life! We got into the parking lot of the stadium and were immediately taken by it's size, it's ENORMOUS. We finally found the right door to get into the pro shop and purchased our tickets. Our tour began in the nice cushioned seats of the middle level of the stadium. It was an awe inspiring seat. As we sat we learned about the stadium, official names Cowboy Stadium but unofficially known as JerryWorld, and some of the thoughts that Jerry Jones had when building this giant structure. We learned quickly that he mostly wanted to build the biggest, the best and a stadium of many firsts.

Here is the rundown:
- The stadium has the largest high-definition television in the world. It is referred to as Jerry-Tron and measures 160-by-72-feet. Trust me when I say that there is not a bad seat in the house if you can view this television. There are two high-definition TVs facing the end zones as well which measure 27 feet tall by 48 feet wide.
- The stadium has the largest retractable/sliding glass doors in the world. The doors measure 120ft wide by 180ft tall and open in 18 minutes. We learned that if they open one door they have to open both doors AT THE SAME TIME otherwise windows would blow throughout the stadium due to the air pressure.
- The retractable roof is the largest in the world. It measures 660,800 square feet and opens in 12 minutes and closes in 9 minutes. Many fans were worried that the trademark star which could be seen from center field would no longer be seen if the roof was closed, but Jerry thought of that...the roof has a star that lights up and can be seen from five miles up...in addition the high-def screen has one on top of it equal in size so that when the roof is open the star remains visible.
- The stadium features two monumental arches, soaring 292 feet above the playing field, which support a retract- able roof. As the longest single span roof structure in the world, each boxed arch is 35 feet deep by 17 feet wide. Weighing 3,255 tons each, these impressive structures span 1,225 feet in length.
- The Cowboys Stadium site covers 73 total acres; the overall site encompasses 140 total acres
- The stadium is 3 million square feet containing 104 million cubic feet of volume
Stadium length – 900 feet from one end zone retractable wall to the opposite end zone retractable wall
- Top of steel at the highpoint of the main arched trusses is 292 feet above the playing field, and each is fabricated from special high-strength grade 65 steel imported from Luxembourg and are the heaviest shape rolled in the world. Many people wonder why they got the steal from Germany and not the US but Germany is the only place in world that makes this special steel.
- The stadium has 325 high class suites including the FIRST every field level suites. Included with this are the first two rows of seats above the suite.
- There are over 800 concessions in the stadium, over 300 TVs, 1600 bathrooms (1000 of them being for the women) and only 8 ATM's!
- The stadium has seating capacity for 80,000 spectators but can hold upwards of 100,000. They sell $30 standing room only tickets for every game but be sure to get there early or you'll have a hard time seeing much.
- The stadium is the first to have the teams enter from the center of the field rather than the end zone.

Some other interesting information we learned as we traveled the stadium is that there are 6 locker rooms at the stadium. One for the Cowboy's which no one but the Cowboys uses, one for the Cowboy cheerleaders, two for the visiting NFL team, one for the home NFL team...for instances like the Superbowl, and one for the XFL team that used to play in Dallas. The reason there are two for the visiting team is that Jerry Jones wanted to make it as uncomfortable for the visitors as possible. They did this by making the locker rooms small to the point that the whole team can't fit in the same room thus during half-time they have to go back and forth. The Cowboy's locker room isn't the most outstanding place but it is nice that they have a short walk to the field, and an even shorter walk to the media room right after the game...it's entrance is within the locker room. As the players head to the field they actually walk through the Miller Light Club which is an area that is accessible only to the field level suites. Therefore when they are walking out they actually walk through the fans. On the other side the opposing team has the same set-up except that there is a plexi-glass barrier so that no one can spit on or throw things at the players.

We got to visit the Cheerleaders locker room to the delight of many of the men. They have quite a nice setup including their pictures above their lockers. Many were surprised to learn that the cheerleaders have to try out every year and that they only make between $50 and $100. They make most of their money in appearances.

The suites are gorgeous and so comfortable. They hold an average of 12-18 people but they do have larger suites. You have to rent the suite for the entire season...you actually lease it and you can use it whenever you want...all hours every day EXCEPT when there is a non-football event at the stadium. If you want to attend a concert you have to buy all twelve tickets for the show. For this reason most people rent out their suites for each event and make a little money to pay back their suite fees.

It was a really neat place to visit and explore. We unfortunately could not go onto the field as you can with many tours because they were preparing for Professional Bull Riders and the field was replaced with dirt. They did invite us back to check it out next time but I doubt we'll be back anytime soon. We made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to get some food and supplies for our camping trip to Big Bend National Park. We didn't make it quite that far and stopped in Odessa, TX for the night.