Road trip to AZ,NM &TX

5 day road is planned starting from san diego. starting with Havasu Falls 2 days camp then rest of days are road trip cover few national parks in Arizona and New Mexico states. Called to havasu reservation center and reserved a camp site and mule assistance for my luggage drop and pickups.  I have planned for a long time to go there, i assumed it is very difficult to go there. After reading Havasu Tourism (http://www.havasuwaterfalls.com) page, i decided to go there and camp for at least 2 days and spend time in pools and get bunch of cool water fall pictures.

  

Started on afternoon in san diego to kingman, az.  started first night in kingman, arizona, so that i can get up early and drive for 2-3 hours , reach parking lot my 9AM complete all paper work and start hiking to havasu village, 10 miles one way.  i hiked while going and coming back.  want to go to all water falls the following day. 

I stayed only one night at Havasu falls campground. while going it is downhill for 1 1/2 miles then trail for rest of path. total 8 miles to Supai village, then 2 miles to campground. I reached Hilltop parking lot by 9AM. But i waited till 10:10AM to tag my luggage to send to campground. it was good  walk for 10 miles. By the time i reached there its mid afternoon. i setup my tent and walked to falls and pools. water was cold. I could not spend much time in water. it was very very windy at night and little bit cool air. next day morning i packed my luggage by 8AM. i was ready to return by 8AM. But waited till 8:30 Am to handover my luggage back to Hilltop. 

Then i went to Beaver Falls, it is awesome view. i descended till midway, i could not go till the bottom of falls as i need to return back. it is little tough to hike. last one and half mile hike was tough. it took me more than one hour. by th time i hiked top, my luggage was there. i picked up and drove to Petrified Forest NP. Gate was closed by the time i reached Park entrance by 30 mins late. Park closes at 5PM. I just watched from outside the gate. Then i drove to quaint, AZ. thats where i wanted to stayed for night. it is near to Monument valley. i want to start next day with Monument Valley.

I started driving by 7AM after breakfast. i went to monument valley, i reached before monument valley before 8AM, it when Valley Gate will be open for visitors/drive through seeing. I drove loop little less than an hour, then i started driving Four Corners Monument, where four us states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico & Utah border lines will meet). it is the only location where four states borders meets. Nothing is there to see except geographic importance and couple of Indian trade shops are there. Then, i drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

I thought of going to Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park. But i decided to go to GSDNP at the last min. It became one of the adventure drive. lot things happened, I drove to Pagosa Springs, CO. smoothly. No went through traffic flow. From Pagosa,  I can see all surrounding mountains, covered with thick clouds, it started snowing. I would have seen the forecast before i started. whole CO



and New Mexico till Santa Fe is given snow forecast. I was glad, i did not go to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. If i did go there, i would have stuck in the middle of Gunnison and Salida. I drove through Fox Mountain with lot of hesitation.  After couple of miles from Pagosa Springs, i also thought of returning before FoxMoutian. I drove finally, there were snow flakes. i did not took it seriously, i crossed Fox Moutain.  Water was frozen on fox Mountain. i see lot of ice skating places near Pagosa downtown. 

After that, it was pretty much flat lands, i saw all four sides full of mountains filled with snow.  I see sun part of the places, so i dared to drive to  Sand Dunes National Park. I went there by 3:30PM.  Sand Dunes are covered with snow. By that time i reached visitor center,  it started snowing.  

I talked to Park Ranger and visitor center assistance about snow forecast. Then, immediately i started driving towards near New-Mexico city Santa-Fe. Unfortunately i need to cross Blanca Peak, its elevation is more than 14000 ft . GPS directions connected me to Hwy25, But  from sand dunes HWY 25 connects after crossing few big mountains Rogh and Silver.

Few miles before Rough mountain, i decided to detour, i saw the map and took 159 instead. i have no idea of road conditions

But i thought it will be better than HWY 160.  i drove 20 - 30 mins in snow. after that road was pretty bad, my car started sliding. then i stopped to put snow chains. luckily, there was still light,
One Mexican Family(John) driving towards SantaFe. stopped and helped to put chains. and then i followed his vehicle till Santa-fe.  They very helpful. He stopped in the middle couple of times to check if i am OK, He even offered to drive my car  in snow till snow is over. But, I drove with snow chains. It was little scary but i liked the whole drove, especially from Pagosa Springs to all the way  to SantaFe. I thought driving little south, But i exhausted and stayed the first lodge i saw. stayed and slept.

I came to know north part New-Mexico snows every year. I did not know, i expected dry. Santa Fe and little south from Santa Fe get snows every year December end to Feb end. Summer temperatures seems to be 90s. not like Arizona or Texas. Best time to see new mexico seems to be late summer and first half of Fall time.

By Morning, i see full of snow everywhere, where i stayed. my car battery of not charging. I towed to nearest AAA approved car repair in Santa Fe to get it fixed, I took a break from driving then went to Santa Fe old downtown.  i visited Museums to see history. New Mexico state history. i learnt how New Mexico state is formed, separated from Spanish and formed  a separate state in USA. It is quite interesting and its bit different culture wise with CA, where i lived for more than 8 years.

Spent half a day at museums, local indian street shops, one of the Santa Fe plazas, i left before evening towards Carlsbad Caverns/Big Bend National Park. i waited to stay close to national park some where by Alpine, an hour/ hour and half driving distance. instead of staying in carlsbad, i went to little south near to Big Bend national park. that way at least 2 hours of day light i use or driving back home.



Carlsbad Cavers - BigBend - Gaudallupe Moutains

From Alpine, i went to Big Bend national park. it took around 2 hours to get to park head quarters. To my surprise, more than half of the camping grounds are full from last 2-3 weeks. 

I have more than 80% people who came there are seems to very athletes/professional in kayaking and biking. They carry mountain bikes or kayaks on their cars and some carried both. 

I saw Big Bend drive through stopped at few vista places to shoot few pictures.   spring and fall seasons are very opt to go to Big Bend National Park. I am on visa,i did not go to all visitor center to explore further south. Park spreads into Mexico also. There is one visitor center at mexican border inside the park, with proper paper work visitors can go and see Mexican side park also.  After that, i wanted to go to Carlsbad, it is around 4 hours from inside the park. 

Just after the leaving the national park, there was US Border checking station. I was asked about my immigration papers. Generally i don't carry my immigration papers, this time i carried all my original papers. by 2 in the afternoon i was at Carlsbad Caverns.

Carlsbad Caverns is one of the biggest caves i visited so far. i went for self guided tour. I walked on Big room tour. Big room trail path inside cave is more than 1 mile. It is quite big. i liked Big Room Route. I did not go to any Guided Tour, they are 4 hours or 2 hours tours with scheduled times. I planned only for few hours. I drove through Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I captured few seconds of video from my car to have glimpse of National Park land scape. I watched slat flats from car. It is ver vast lands.

From Guadalupe Mountains National Park, i started home with intent of stopping where ever i exhausted. Still i had 2-3 hours of light. i thought i can drive to  in and around of Tucson, AZ at least. But, I drove all the way to San Diego, CA non stop. it was fun, i was stopped at least 3 or 4 times to check my immigration papers. i drove next to Mexican border couple of times.