Sunday, April 24th – Big Bend N.P., Texas to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico – Day 73
We packed up in the morning as quickly as we could to avoid working in the heat. It was already hot. We had a big travel day since we were leaving Texas temporarily for New Mexico. We enjoyed the scenic drive through the desert one more time, got gas and filled up our water bottles before getting on the highway out.
We had a few things we wanted to do on the way to New Mexico.
The first was in Big Bend, the Fossil Discovery Centre. Gen missed the sign and we were debating whether it was worth it to turn around. The answer was definitely yes. There was a small building with a view of the mountains (like everywhere). The displays went through the geological history of Big Bend. Big Bend started as a deep ocean trough and sediment formed shale and limestone beds. The creation of mountains in the area raised the land mass to become a shallow sea. The formation of the Rockies and volcanic activity created more mountains around a forested landscape. This led to all sorts of fossils and history preserved.
The coolest fossils present in the building was a 6m long predator from the early ocean that was found with a 6-foot-long fish fossilized in it’s throat which was speculated as the cause of death. A massive flying dinosaur, a Pterosaur, skeleton with a wingspan of 10m hung from the ceiling. A 35-foot long giant alligator had it’s skull displayed and a full sized image available. Also, cousins of Triceratops and T. Rex had parts of skeletons available. After a conversation with my brothers and Aunt Jane to wish everyone a happy Easter (celebrated a week late), we kept moving out of the desert.
Our next stop was Fort Davis, a National Historic site. Fort Davis was put there to protect settlers moving through the area from the Indigenous people who were still angry that their land was taken away from them and they were forced into reservations. The kids worked through their junior ranger booklets while we toured the buildings. They did a really nice job restoring the 150 year old barracks, officer’s quarters and lieutenants quarters to give a sense of what they would have looked like.
Next stop was Davis Mountains State Park. The kids had received their Texas Junior Ranger level 1 at Galveston State Park. They had been slowly working writing animal based riddles and poems, developing their ideas about Leave No Trace and more, to receive their Junior Ranger Levels 2 and 3. We needed to show a Ranger and have them sworn in. A quick 10 minutes stop saw them sworn in and receive some swag for their troubles.
The drive onwards saw the horizontal layers in the mountains transform into vertical columns. This may signal the formation by volcanic lava flows but I’m an amateur geologist. Regardless, New Mexico was a combination of desert and stunning rock formations which was very pleasant to drive through.
Gen was researching what else may be on our route when she found Balmorhea State Park. When we approached we could see the spring that fed the State Park as it was a spot of green in a yellowish desert. We had free admission since we had purchased our Texas State Park Pass when we entered Texas. Balmorhea featured a natural spring that had been constructed into a massive swimming pool. There was shade and picnic tables, showers (which were necessary at this point) and a bunch of families enjoying the late afternoon. The water had families of blue catfish swimming along a bottom covered with green aquatic plants. It was incredibly refreshing.
When the park closed we kept travelling towards New Mexico. We had a 2.5 hour drive to Chosa campground near Carlsbad. Chosa campground was a free, dirt and stone parking lot which featured a dumpster as the main amenity. Regardless, it was quiet and had a nice breeze. We set-up and went to sleep.
This was a really good travel day. With a total travel time of close to 6 hours, we managed to break it up so the kids weren’t going stir crazy. Everyone loved the fossil exhibit and the spring. Well done Mom and Dad.
Aisling: My favourite part of Big Bend was shade.
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