So, we are still in Texas! This time in a National Park, albeit a small one. They have a small campground, well a car park really, for about 20 RV’s or caravans. Facilities are…….. a toilet. It is also a trailhead for several walks, and we liked that, being able to walk from the door. Also, the view was great, we were in a bowl, surrounded by lovely mountains 🏔️ 

On our first afternoon there, we did a walk to Devils Hall, a there and back route, with great scenery from the valley floor. One section was difficult for me, a very slippery stone wall/staircase, but third time lucky and I cracked it (we both came down on our bums😆)! The canyon called the devil’s hall was great.

The next day we got up early and started our hike by 8 am. This was a big hike, Guadalupe Peak, the highest mountain in Texas! 8 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain, our biggest hike in a long time. This meant basically 4 miles up and 4 miles down! We started early as it was likely to get hot and very windy.

It definitely got very windy; at times I felt it would blow us off the mountain, and I did put my cap away for fear of losing it. As we got closer to the top, we reached a few places where the path was non-existent or, you couldn’t see what was around the next bend, and some big drop offs 🥺 As I have got older these things make me very nervous 😬 But, I really wanted to get the top of Guadalupe Peak so I persevered! I really felt fear. We got to the top and it was extremely windy. Gradually, I relaxed enough to take a few photos, before we started the first and worst part of the descent, which was not as bad as going up, thank goodness!

As we were descending a couple asked us if the truck in the car park was ours, Shaun! I think they must have recognised our accents as British! It turned out they had already done the Pan American highway, so we agreed to meet up later for a chat 😀

The descent went smoothly, and we saw lots of people on their way up, but it had been quite quiet when we went up, which was nice. 

In the evening, we had a lovely conversation with Ike and Bethany, the couple we met on the mountain, Nomadizens on Instagram. It was great to talk to people who had done the Pan American highway and get tips from them. They are living full time in their RV and travelling and working their way around the USA, something we wish we had thought of when we were younger! Good luck and happy, safe travels to them. The great thing about making connections as we travel is being able to share ideas and places to visit. We have been able to do this with Bethany and Ike already. In fact, one of their tips would have been to visit Hueco Tanks, and they were delighted that was our next stop 😀

So the next day, Sunday we did a short drive to our last stop in Texas, a state park called Hueco Tanks. We arrived early as we had managed to book on to a ranger led tour, so we could access different parts of the park not allowed on our own. This caused Mark a little stress, as he wanted to watch the Ireland vs Scotland 6 nations rugby game. He was able to listen to the first half as we drove, and kept up to date with the result on his phone; fortunately, Ireland won! 

Hueco Tanks (Hueco means hollow in Spanish and refers to the many water holding depressions in the boulders and rocks) is popular for two main reasons, pictographs and bouldering. People get permits to visit the park; when we arrived there was a big queue of vehicles and people who were hoping people had not turned up to use their bouldering permit! It is world renowned as a great bouldering centre. Still, we were here to walk and see petroglyphs and we arrived in time to do our tour. This is a very special park and we had to watch a 15 minute video about the park and how to behave whilst visiting it. The tour was great, and the guide explained about a bit about the history of the park, its uses, people and took us to some great pictographs, rock paintings. It is still considered a sacred place to many Native Americans. The first paintings were created between 6000 to 3000 BC, but most of them were from around 1000 AD by Mogollon Culture. These people moved out about 600 years ago, probably as the area could no longer sustain them. The paintings may have been used in praying for rain.

We were able to explore by ourselves the next morning as we had permits allowing this, and found more rock art, and some very old graffiti, circa 1800’s! We were also lucky to see a large herd of deer, and a group of Javelinas!

So the time has come to leave Texas. We have loved West Texas, it has given us great scenery, dark skies, mountains and history. 

Now for New Mexico, and very importantly meeting up with Dollys Diarys, Dan and Geraldine; we are very excited!!