Texas & New Mexico 5 Day Road Trip: Caves, Aliens, Ghost Towns & National Parks

After the Route 66 and Loneliest Highway videos were a big hit on the channel, my dad and I decided to try taking a

road

trip

every quarter and share it with all of you. On this

trip

we wanted to visit some of the

national

parks

that not many of us had been to either, so we headed to West Texas and Southeast New Mexico for an epic five-day

road

trip. Along the way we saw

ghost

towns

, sand dunes,

caves

,

aliens

, and the stunning Texas landscape. Here is a full video of that adventure and thank you again for encouraging these trips with the views and subscriptions on this channel, it has truly been a highlight of the last few years for both my dad and I, you guys remember my dad, We are starting another road trip, this time we will leave El Paso and we will spend five days exploring the western part of Texas.

Let's do it to start this journey. We flew to the city of El Paso and spent a day and a half exploring it. I'm just going to touch on the main things here. You can watch my full video about El Paso if you are interested, first stop on our trip to El Paso guys. I asked some friends what to do in El Paso and one of the first recommendations was Chico's, this fast food place is historic and basically an institution in the city, I'll let you decide if it's worth the stop, although from there we headed to the Casa de Asucar, also known as the Sugar House, this beautiful private residence was created by a single man and you can walk around the outside.

Be sure to leave a donation if you visit, what do you think, pups? It is amazing that this man did all this by himself over a period of 24 years. It's just beautiful. We even had a chance to chat with the artist who was outside working while we were there and It's definitely a must see place in El Paso, as you no doubt know if you follow this YouTube channel, we try to fit as many things as possible into one trip by road on a given day so for our third stop we headed to utep the university of

texas

el paso was interested in visiting the lacong bhutanese temple so we walked around the outside even though it wasn't open when we were there after walking around campus and explore some more we headed to downtown el paso downtown el paso is full of history and you'll definitely want to make sure to stop by the plaza theater and hotel while you're there of course the main place to visit is Plaza San Jacinto, right in the middle of downtown El Paso, look what I found in El Paso, yeah, you wouldn't expect to see crocodiles after investigating it a little more, apparently there used to be alligators that lived in this pond in the center of El Paso. passage from 1880 to 1960, they were eventually removed, but there are a lot of fun stories about the gators that you can read online, like visiting local bars and things like that, it's cool to see this statue that encompasses the fun part of El Paso's history right in the city center, if you want to visit more while you are there, you can also visit the art museum which is right next to the square.

From downtown, we drove along the US-Mexico border on our way to the lnj cafe for dinner. It was a long wait, but you could enter your phone number and receive a text when your table was ready, so we headed to the scenic drive, which is quite close to lnj cafe. The scenic drive was what I did the most in El Paso, it doesn't take long to do and takes you to an amazing viewpoint for the entire city of El Paso there is a small parking lot there, but people come and go relatively quickly so It's not very difficult to find a place.

This is probably the best place we have been to in El Paso so far. Very good view of the city. I can see Juárez in the background. I'm told this area becomes especially popular at dusk, so it can be more difficult to find a parking spot. The view of the city is pretty incredible and it's great to be able to see all of Mexico. From here on our way to the other side of the scenic drive we also stopped at Tom Lee Upper Park which offers a different view of downtown El Paso which is also great, after that we received a notification that our table It was ready and we headed back to lnj cafe Ellen J Cafe has been in El Paso since 1927 and is the fourth generation of the family to still run it.

I'm not even kidding when I say it's one of the best meals I've had in recent memory, I definitely get the green one. chicken enchiladas with chili, onion, egg and sour cream, you can thank me later, yes that's amazing, it's a winner, it's fabulous, amazing, my dad and I liked it so much we ate it again when we got back to El Pass to fly home at the hotel after exploring the pass tomorrow we start the road trip and head towards the crosses we are starting our second day first stop coffee every time I travel I always try to find interesting cafes and this is definitely a good little one cool coffee shop, right?

Next to the school we now head to Waco Tanks Waco Tanks is a popular park about 45 minutes from downtown El Paso. I didn't get an advance pass so we couldn't visit, but we visited at the end of the trip due to coronavirus restrictions, we can't actually go into the Waco tanks, so until our next stop, Las Cruces, Leaving El Paso, we begin the journey towards Las Cruces and Mesías with the ultimate goal being White Sands National Park. South of Las Cruces at La Posta, which is one of the oldest and most recognized Mexican restaurants in the Southwest, La Posta is an incredible historic Mexican restaurant in Messiah that is located in a building that was once a stagecoach stop in Butterfield.

The restaurant started in 1939 and to this day it has become a staple of new Mexican food and people come from all over to try it. There are fish and parrots. I greeted you. This. Hi, okay this place is amazing, but let's see how the food is. Sounds great. I'm happy to say this is an easy recommendation if you're in the area. The Mexican food was amazing. The historic restaurant was great and the waiters were happy to tell us all about the history. So this is the folded green enchilada. taco and chili rienna la posto lived up to expectations, it was an absolutely amazing restaurant and really good food.

This building once housed the capital of Arizona and New Mexico and is where Billy the boy was tried and sentenced to hang less than a block from the restaurant is the historic Macia Plaza, Billy the Kids store on the outskirts, It's definitely fun to visit, but you'll want to spend some time in the historic Plaza de Masia, this central plaza has been a gathering area for centuries and is a popular spot to this day for farmers markets and for people to spend the day. while there, it was only a short drive to one of the things that Dad was most excited to see, it's the largest chili in the world.

I'm at home, I want to see the biggest chili that's the biggest chili that's amazing are you ready for this? we're in the biggest chili in the world this is the first time i've seen popsa do a selfie video this whole trip he really likes chili That's a pretty giant chili. I'm not really sure about the history of this place, but I assume it was designed to be a roadside attraction and to draw people to the motel. They told us it was 47 feet long inside. Do you top this place on the crosses? Don't miss it by leaving the chili.

We headed to downtown Las Cruces but nothing was really happening and everything was pretty much closed so we walked a bit and then headed to white sands

national

park it's about 45 minutes to get to white sands national park from here this is one of the points of interest in the crosses area is where pat garrett was killed so we thought we would stop and take a look at the sign the road to white sands first view of white sands national park we arrive at white sands national park let's go take a sled and go explore White Sands became a national monument in 1933 and then a national park in 2019 it is the most visited national park in new

mexico

the two best things to do here are sledding and walking drinks food and sledding You could buy a sled for about twenty dollars when I was there and then they'd give it back to you for four dollars, thanks.

I'm sure it's a lot cheaper if you bring your own sled, but we didn't think about that before entering the park. Now we are waiting to enter the park. The parents will go sledding. No, no problem, probably not, we'll see. I'll check it out, the main white sand area has a road and it's 16 miles round trip. There are four main hikes in this park and we did them all, but in this video I'm just covering the basics, so check out the full white sands. video in the description, the puppies are getting ready for our walks with their knee pads.

The first trail we did in the park was the beach trail, which is a short half-mile round trip to a dry lake bed. Our second trail was the dune life nature trail which is basically across the street from the beach trail this is our second park trail it is the dune life nature trail it is about a mile one way and back This hike starts with a flat walk from the parking area up a relatively steep 20 foot hill that leads to the dunes, so it looks like there should be an ocean on the other side of the sand.

It looks like beach sand, so we're just following these markers around the top of the dunes. Look how cool the lines in the sand are. This trail is a great introductory trail to the national park and is good for the whole family if you don't want to do anything too strenuous. There are many interpretive plaques here and it is easy to follow the trail as it travels through the dunes. That being said, if you really want to experience the park and have time for a longer hike, then the Alkali Plains Trail is the best trail in the park.

It's only 70 degrees today but it's hot here, they say the sun reflects off the sand, I can confirm that's true after completing the trail we headed back to the car and headed to our next spot on white sands. The journey to the next location is quite incredible as it takes you through the dunes. Halfway here, this is our third trail of the day. The Inner Dunes Boardwalk Trail. The boardwalk trail is less than half a mile round trip and is an elevated boardwalk that takes you through the dunes with a nice canopy section that is shaded if you need a break there.

There are also mini interpretive plaques on this trail to tell you about the surrounding area. This is a really great place for people who use wheelchairs. You can get to the middle of the dunes and really feel it. Now is the time to jump. When the sled leaves this trail, the pavement ends and you drive on sand throughout the entire back loop. We had a two wheel drive car with low clearance and there was no problem getting through the sand in this section, it's like a cloud of Sand as soon as we get off the road, once you get to this back area you'll basically see people everywhere and you just need to find a good hill you can sled on.

It has our wax. He acts like he knows what he's doing. he has no idea what he's doing just putting wax on the bottom what else it looks pretty waxy here we go first ride i think it might need a little more wax he claims his weak run was due to lack of wax , you said he didn't even do it. Get it, I don't even know if it will make any difference, maybe you need a skill set that he doesn't have after finding out the situation, dune sledding is absolutely amazing, ah, that was better, a little faster, I thought that you just said it.

We don't need anything we'll touch the wax that's how you're supposed to do it look let's see if pops can even make it to the top of the hill the worst part is definitely having to walk back every time in the Arena I missed the bottom where fell, it's the hardest part to get him waxed for the last race of the day. I'm very exhausted. It's a lot harder to climb that hill than you think. It's so fun to see all the people and families around. You simply enjoy going down the dunes on your sled. Some of the people we talked to have been here all day and we only left because the park was closing later.

It is definitely a unique experience in a national park. and one that my dad and I really enjoyed storing our sled, which was absolutely amazing. If you have a family, you definitely want to plan a half day of sledding, but we are going to take a hike from our sledding area. We circled the back loop and reached the flat alkaline trail, which was our last trail of the day. This trail is not flat. You will walk hard up and down the dunes. The whole journey sounds like an adventure. A five mile loop. Three hours of walking.

We leave on our third and last trailof the day. Five mile alkali flats trail around the trip and then the pop will hit that steep hill at the end. I'm excited about this, yes you are going to do the highest hike in white sands national park. Yeah, I think we just have to follow those posts. It's already beautiful here. I have about an hour and a half until sunset, but it is very soft and beautiful. If you've never walked on sand before, definitely don't underestimate this trail. There are a lot of ups and downs over small hills and it definitely takes its toll on you as you walk through the deep sand.

We're starting to get away from the crowd so you can see that some of those dunes look like they might be a little more intact even though the elevation profile is relatively flat, you can see that there's another decent sized hill right there as we backtracked and continued going up the little hills we got away from all the other people and it was just me and my dad. Walking along the sand dunes, I say that I love the shadows there, very often, they definitely are. These uphill stretches are no joke. At two and a half miles we got over the last dune and headed to the turning point for this hike, it's crazy that there are all these dunes here and then we basically got to the end of the dunes here so we got to the end of the trail and I think that on this side of the sign is the missile test area out there, you want to go to the missile test area, I think I'd rather not do that, so there's two and a half miles behind it in the sand, just halfway there, okay, we're leaving the end of the trail two and a half miles.

Half a mile back, we have about an hour before the sun sets and we have to leave the park. Hopefully we'll have a nice sunset on the way back. An interesting note about this area is that it is the largest gypsum dune field in the world. It normally dissolves with water, but because of how dry the climate is here, it actually remains and can collect what makes up the dune field. Look, dad and I are the only people here. Wow, it's also completely silent. I try to take as many as possible. videos and photos as I can, but honestly the only way to experience this sunset is to be here on white sands and see it for yourself as we continued heading back to the trailhead, the sun was setting and it was one of the best. sunsets I've ever seen in a national park look at the color here now it's like cotton candy skies there's some pink there when the sun goes down there's some orange some more pink and orange over there puffs We're back five miles in the sandy parking lot is right over the ridge so it was a tough hike, no way around it.

That said, it is an absolutely incredible national park hike, especially if you combine it with the sunset like we did, it's just amazing that people walk there. the dunes to where they end and then come back and watch the sunset on the sand is definitely a really cool experience having a national park, what do you think is incredibly beautiful, both the sand itself and if you can stay for a sunset the sunset is unmatched it's a 360 degree sunset it's amazing after getting back on the trail and getting all the sand off my shoes during the hike I decided I couldn't leave the white sands without reaching the great sledding hill right next to where we parked.

Alright, we had this epic hill right next to our car and we had to get out of here, but we couldn't resist spending one more night sledding. Alright, our time in White's hands is over, we head back to the hotel, that's the At the end of the second day, we start the day with a plateau coffee and head to Roswell with a few stops along the way. We spent the night in the town of Alamogordo and saw a sign for the largest pistachio in the world, so of course that was our first. stop next day the largest pistachio in the world, here we go, it's a very big pistachio, the store wasn't open when we went so it was a quick stop, unfortunately, that's the closest thing to the pistachios we get today in the Next place, our destination was Roswell.

New Mexico, but we went up into the mountains on Highway 82, which is the longest way, since there was a bridge I wanted to see in the Lincoln National Forest. It ended up being a beautiful trip and I definitely recommend it, so Dad never does. I found something for our trip, but he found this, the Mexican canyon trestle and look, I'd say it's good enough for one for this trip. I also added snow just for photo effect. This easel was added to the National Register of Historic Places. in 1979 and is one of the best preserved structures of the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railroad that operated from 1899 to 1949.

This sign shows how dangerous this trestle was because if I go too slow the logs will fall if I go too fast the cars will crash. they fall and there is a picture of a car falling and a picture of a train on the actual trestle. This road shows the route through the mountains, so we are right here at the Mexican canyon trestle, but there were many other dangerous points as we headed down the road towards Alamogordo where we stayed last night. There seems to be a small path down. It can be a little steep, but it's not that bad.

I love old bridges and this one is pretty amazing. The path here was slippery, so take it. slow, it was a little sketchy for my dad who stayed at the top. I just took a bunch of pictures and then went back up, that's how I came down, but there's actually a real road right here that says goodbye to the trestle and We're on our way to Roswell, I saw a sign for cold apple cider, so we had What to stop, plus they have a camel here so that's cool too. Runyon Farms is a great roadside stop, it's a fruit stand and petting zoo, they exist as a rescue. zoo that takes in animals and then rehabilitates them and tries to rehome them pretty epic bathrooms for a road trip right next to all these animals in that lake down there sorry guys I don't have anything to feed you guys it's so fun. road trip spot, plus they make their own apple cider here, it's really good, looks like a wise goat right there, can't tell you what one of my favorite things to do on road trips with pops is make him stick his head in As the cardboard cutouts appear, this looks exactly like your awesome road trip stop if you find yourself driving through the area, definitely check it out from there.

It was another 45 minutes or so to Roswell, New Mexico, we arrived in Roswell first, stopped at the welcome to Roswell sign. and uh this poor alien spaceship that needs a boost I love that people are giving them a cake showing the nice hospitality we have. What's wrong with this lady's pie puppies is helping to propel the alien spaceship welcome to Roswell, I'm not. I'm going to lie. I am very excited to explore Roswell. I love this kind of clever stuff. Are you excited about Roswell? Are you going to be stupid like you were in your Uranus Missouri?

This is different from that. This is different from Uranus. This is really cool. I'm not sure I'm a believer, but this is a lot of fun and they have my truck. I have that truck. You could be helping

aliens

. That's right, upon entering Roswell, you will be greeted with the Roswell sign and the aliens outside. Basically, from every store in the city center, upon arriving in downtown Roswell, we parked next to the international UFO museum and research center, which is the main place that people visit when they come to the city, from there we explored the extraterrestrial streetlights and the different stores that were around. the museum since i'm making a video during covid times i feel like i had to wear a big alien mask following the alien prince to the spacewalk after visiting some shops we headed to the ufo spacewalk adventure which ended up being my place favorite at Roswell, they even offered us blasters to take with us through the experience to protect us from the aliens.

Oh, I'll do this one, yeah, what you got, pups, yours works or it doesn't, okay, dad, you got your gun, come on. You're welcome, that's all, you don't want to shoot those guys, here you are, crazy boss, did you get the aliens? I'm going to get them. This weapon is epic, this place is actually really fun. They do a beautiful job with black. the lighting and everything is so much fun oh no they have one of us their pops pops has turned into a cocoon needless to say based on these clips but the ufo space walk is a big family attraction in the area Roswell, pops, and I had a exploring it, I'm getting a new piece of alien memorabilia every place we go, just a block away brought us to our next alien exhibit, alien zone, okay, this is the main attraction of the store, right here we are walking.

In the alien photo area, this whole back area is little pieces that you can stand on to take your photos. It is an incredible experience for the whole family. You can cook a burger for an alien right here if I had to guess. I'd say there are probably about 20 or more of these individual pieces that you can insert yourself into to take photos. These are the kind of silly things that pop up that I like to find when we're traveling and we definitely spend time with each one. of the exhibits taking photos on a motorcycle here with my friend, that's a system, you know, this is not your typical bar, I mean, dad had a lot of fun doing that, definitely a good thing to do as a family in Roswell, pop was the that left the store. with something this time the space cowboy don't call me space cowboy some call you love gangster yes from the alien zone the last thing we had to do in downtown Roswell was visit the international UFO museum and research center this is the main place that tourists visit since we didn't see anyone on the space walk or in the extraterrestrial zone, but we saw dozens of people in this museum.

It is a great place to learn about the Roswell incident and other UFO sightings in the United States. Photographic evidence of UFOs. This shows footage of all the fake sightings This lampshade reflected through a window All the different alien movies I would probably say my favorite is Independence Day was your favorite I think my favorite would be The First World War the 60s let us know which one is your favorite in the comments. This museum took over a movie theater, so it's a big room with exhibits on the sides. It's actually pretty amazing to see how they put all these exhibits together and trace some of the history that they say points to extraterrestrial life, not sure if they're saying all these guys are aliens or not, every 30 minutes, the exhibit in the middle It's got lights and smoke and all sorts of stuff, and it's definitely worth staying to see while you're there.

After leaving the museum, we explored downtown a little more before heading to a few more stops in Roswell, the first being the ufo mcdonald's, we usually don't eat mcdonald's on a road trip, but when it's inside a ufo we thought we had to do it for lunch. Hell yeah, McDonald's UFO, they even have fries on a spaceship. This is by far the coolest McDonald's I have ever been to. We can't eat here because of Cobit, but they let us come. Come in and take some pictures. A really fun place after exploring the interior. Make sure you come out and see the mural too.

This mural on the outside of McDonald's starts here and goes all the way to the end when you leave the McDonald's drive right next to it. door to the dunkin donuts which also has a big alien holding a sign right here we have dunkin alien and right here we have the pretty strong ufo mcdonald's place in roswell after leaving the duncan we went to a few more stores because I was trying to find an alien carved in wood to take home with me, oh no, dad, it's boarding the alien spaceship, where are you going?, dad Uranus, we arrived at the invasion station, they had them in this little store on the outskirts of town and it's a great memory.

For my desk at home we thought that since we were already here, we might as well stop by the visitor center and make sure we didn't miss anything. At the visitor center they have an area for photos and a printout where you have to take a photo. Check it out, it's amazing in that way. Our time in Roswell is over. We headed to Carlsbad for the night. We returned to our hotel in Carlsbad. That's the end of the third day. We left our hotel in Carlsbad. On the fourth day we headed to Carlsbad National Park. Vote in the comments if you think Dad will go to the cave to start our adventure.

We left the city of Carlsbad, which is about 25 minutes from Carlsbad National Park. I plan to get there beforelet them open, since I wanted to be there. The first tour of the cave is fine, we arrived at 7:45. There is already quite a queue so hopefully it won't take us long to do the tour due to Covid regulations, they were limiting the number of people in the cave. We were able to get the first time slot to enter so this is what we do: We walk through the natural entrance and then you enter the cave through the main corridor to the big room down here and that's where you can take We went back up. in the elevator, since we had a little time to wait before we could enter the cave.

We walked through the visitor center and read about the exhibits in the cave itself and the bats that live in it, so during the summer the bats fly out of the cave every night this photo I don't know if you can see it but look at all those bats coming out of the cave, so it's about a five minute walk to the natural entrance in this direction I'm going to walk Down there I can enter at 8:30. After listening to a talk from the ranger about safety bats and the cave, we were able to begin our journey toward Carlsbad Caverns 66 curves and 750 feet down into the cave below us.

Take a look at all these bats. I had seen photos of this area before and the long switchbacks to get to the cave, but there is something incredible about being able to walk to this impressive cave by yourself. This is especially true as you get closer to the bottom and the light begins to fade from that single hole it comes in through. I have officially arrived at the cave. Now we are entering the dark area as we will move away from the natural light of the cave and enter a little into the darkness. of water here and you can hear the drips during this part of the adventure.

I was basically just walking into the cave and looking at all the formations that kept appearing in front of me, all that water down there, this one is known. like a whale's mouth, do you see it? there is a lot of downhill, you still have a little setback even though I looked at the map before coming here to see all the changes and all the descending we had to do to get to the cave. I was still surprised by the fact that we continued down the cave, I never felt claustrophobic because it is almost always big and open.

I'm sure the videos in this section don't do it justice, but you'll be impressed. of timesWhen walking through the

caves

, since it is relatively dark most of the time, I thought it was cool to be able to see the people in front of you using their flashlight, as it helped you understand the scale of the caveman with each step. it keeps getting better this is amazing I don't know if you can see it but we are still going downhill during this part of the hike you are in a large main corridor as you continue descending into the caverns you should note that I spent about three hours underground to do all this.

We are here next to the iceberg rock. The elevators are here, so we're actually pretty close to the elevators. I guess this rock here is called iceberg rock. The iceberg rock actually fell in this area. and they dated these things and they think it's over half a million years old, it's an iceberg rock that fell and then there are those things that we're seeing after we pass this area, it will cross about a mile and a quarter that has already walked in the cave , this is easily one of the most amazing national park experiences I have had due to Covid there is no tour so you can go alone and I have basically had this cave to myself the entire time they dropped off a group about every 30 minutes but the cave is so big I never felt like there were people that are the ones we found, dad I didn't think I would come to the cave, good job dad wow it's worth it, it's pretty amazing though. so we get to the big room and then it's another mile and a quarter to get back to the elevator or you can just get out of here and go back up, but we're going to do the whole ride so there's 1.2 miles to go.

One of the tour pops is just hanging out in the big room, but today he overcame one of his fears, so we're going this way though 1.2 miles, once you get to the big room you'll be about halfway your hike and you're about to experience what I thought was the most amazing part of the national park. Also, if you don't feel like doing the hike to get here, you can always take the elevator and experience this section. This video will never do it justice. to how amazing this area is, but this is the big room we're in, crazy, how massive it is and how many formations there are everywhere you look, check it out, those are the retarded titans, like they're almost connected , look what we are.

Heading to OMG, I had no idea what to expect when I walked into the large room. I thought what I had already seen was impressive, but this ruined everything I had seen before. I have been to many caves in the United States. states and nothing even remotely compares to the great room. I feel like when I'm in this cave I'm like I'm in Lord of the Rings. This is absolutely crazy. The next area of ​​the great room we entered was one of the best. and it was called the hall of the giants. This area is called fairyland and it definitely looks like a fairyland with all this crazy stuff on the floor and then look at what's on the ceiling.

I had another place I was heading to in the afternoon, so I didn't. I won't be able to spend as much time in this area as I would like, but honestly, you could spend days here and still not see everything. It's absolutely overwhelming in a good way, how much there is to experience. Well, we reached the limit. The area still has to return to the bottomless pit and the top of the cross, then exit via the elevator. If you have limited time, from here you can cross and return to the lift without doing the rest of the loop a bit.

A little more water in the cave down here. Look at that old ladder they used to use. I like caves, but I don't think I would have gone in if it looked like most of the large room area was wheelchair accessible. There are some sections. You can't use a wheelchair, but the rangers at the visitor center can tell you all about that. If you come with a wheelchair, we have reached the top of the cross and then the large hall goes in that direction. The cross is a great area to just sit, relax and enjoy the cave.

There is plenty of seating here and the area supposedly got its name from the rock formations on the roof that the original discoverers thought looked like angels. From here, the next important point of interest. It was the bottomless pit, you can't really see this, it's too dark, but it's a crazy dark pit down there, it says it's huge blocks of gypsum, it's the sand from the white sands national park, while this second one Part of the great hall after the Bottomless Pit is still fresh, it pales in comparison to the first section of the great hall.

As you approach the elevator, it opens again and you can see some of the best formations on the other side. It's crazy how many of these amazing formations they have in this cave, as each one of them alone could be a highlight in some of the other caves in the United States. Also, just to say it again, this video will never do it justice. You have to experience it for yourself. I soaked in the last one. 10 minutes into my ride before I stand in line and wait my turn to take the elevator back to the surface, there's the route we just took, absolutely incredible, it left Carlsbad Caverns, probably one of my top five, if not the three, best national

parks

. have i ever been to that was amazing definitely check it out now we are making the four and a half five mile drive to big bend on the way to big bend we passed the guadalupe mountains national park i knew we weren't going to have much time to see it, but we decided to stop at one of the shorter trails just to spend a little time there.

The area we decided to explore was the historic Bob's Bean Ranch. There is a natural spring here that produces six gallons per minute. Great, it comes out right in front of the house. None of the buildings were actually open to enter, but we stuck our heads through some windows and walked around the property. This tiny little building right here was the school we were headed to. Less than half a mile from Manzanita Springs Trail. We hiked the Manzanita Springs trail a bit and it definitely let me know that I need to return to this national park in the future.

The main hike here takes you to the highest point in the state. from Texas, which is also great, it was a nice little half mile trail, a beautiful area to walk. I can't wait to get back here and explore some more of the national park, but since we're headed to Big Bend, that's it. we can see on this trip when we left the national park, the trip was absolutely beautiful through the sparse landscape of Texas with different mountains jutting out in the distance, after about an hour and a half we arrived at our next destination in Prada Marfa, this is a Prada store in the middle of nowhere supposedly those are real products there and the glass is bulletproof to prevent people from trying to break in and steal them yeah random stop on the road also seems like people leave padlocks in the back too This facility was installed in 2005 and believe it or not, it was probably one of the busiest things we saw on our road trip.

Both times we drove we passed tons of people waiting to take photos and you didn't even get out of the car to your favorite store Prada yeah I have so much product I don't need any more we didn't need any more from there it was a long drive with basically no cell reception to our interlingua hotel, we come to this is our hotel built here In the early 1900s, we are upstairs, let's see it, so we are upstairs in this hotel and this is our room. Mr. Perry's room. The Perry Mansion was built by the owner of the nearby Chisos mining company in 1909.

This is his actual room that he stayed in while he was in the mansion. It's amazing to look at the

ghost

town. Look at it, it appears. This is quite surprising. Now look out the window. Although you approve. I approve it. This is very funny. The second cool building from the outside is also located on the hill so you can monitor everything going on around it, plus there is an amazing outdoor patio overlooking the historic mining district, this is a really fun old place we will go to . Explore the city a little more before dining at the Starlight Theatre.

Hopefully, it seemed pretty busy when we passed by. That's our room. There you can see how this area is a ghost town. There's an abandoned building right there. And then that's the The kind of main downtown area with the restaurant that everyone likes. It was about a two hour wait for dinner, so we put our name in and took the time to explore the ghost town. If you want to explore it, be sure to take a ghost town. -Guided walking tour from one of the main buildings in the city center. This town was once home to over 2000 people during the mining boom, but was abandoned in the 40s and then repopulated again in the 1970s.

It was actually one of the highlights for my father and it was a Really cool city to explore, the first place we stopped was the cemetery, it has over 400 graves and the oldest one is from 1903. As we kept walking we saw a property that was for sale that had a boat and what looked like a submerged submarine yes this city has a ship this is our last stop on our little city tour it's the ruins on the other side of the cemetery exploring these ruins was crazy to see and the walking tour said this city used to have a butcher shop and an ice cream shop and all sorts of other things when it was in its mining heyday.

I love that the town seemed to be coming back to life, but still had all these ghost town elements right off the main street. The downtown area is pretty crazy, this is like a preserved blight. I even found the remains of an old car lying around. Awesome if you make it all the way to Big Bend, this is definitely a fun place to at least come for dinner, explore the ruins, and be friendly. Just checking out this old ghost town after exploring the ruins we walked back to the city center with a quick stop at Terra Lingua Jail, about an hour and a half wait but that's where we'll eat at the Starlight theater, it's the best place. in town and one of the only places in town right next to the Starlight theater is the Terlingua Trading Company and it is a great place to see old maps and learn about the history of the area as well as buy some souvenirs from your stay in the town, we're waiting for our table, but look at the epic sunset behind our hotel, we're still exploring a little more because we're waiting for the restaurant, but this is the actual mine shaft and that's one of the carts they used . to go to the mine down there this city is crazy unique all kinds of things to look at whileyou walk by the starlight theater has a storied past in the city this adobe building was built in the 1930s for entertainment and eventually a movie theater when the city was abandoned in the 40s the roof of the building was sold and left deteriorate.

It was not until the 1990s that the building was purchased, rehabilitated and converted into the Starlight Theater restaurant and bar that it is. Nowadays it's an amazing place for food and live entertainment if you come on the right night, so they say they have award-winning chili here, world famous chili, right here, right? They said they started the chili cooking contest. So they started the chili cooking contest here and this is a world famous chili so we'll see it here very meaty very good very good not too spicy very delicious very good this is what dad got which is fried chicken with antelope as a steak fried chicken on Amazon is interesting and I bought brisket, we stayed at dinner much longer than we expected as it's a fun place to hang out, plus it's cool to see the building lit up at night and we headed back to our hotel , we drink the chocolate bourbon. pecan pie to go and I think we're going to call it a night because we have a long day in Big Bend tomorrow, which is the end of day four, leaving our hotel before dawn to enter the park and do some hiking towards Big Bend.

Bend National Park early in the morning, there is not even anyone manning the entrance station at this time of the morning. Our first destination was the Lost Mine Trail, which is a favorite trail for park visitors. Plus, they were doing construction when we went, so you just could. We get in at certain times, which is why we got up so early to make sure we could get a parking spot. Stop number one on the Big Bend National Park Lost Mine Trail. It has about four and a half miles of trail and is one of the most popular in the Park at 7:15 on a Wednesday.

We have the last parking spot, so come here early if you want to do this hike. The Lost Mine Trail begins gradually as you make your way through the sparse trees toward the mountains ahead of you. A break as you go, there are some beautiful views through these little windows in the rocks towards the landscape in front of you. We continued on, saw some deer just off the trail and Big Bend is actually home to over 75 different mammals. It's pretty awesome to see some deer on the trail like that in the morning, they didn't even care that we were there.

I guess they are used to people and we are not bears or mountain lions so I was there to worry. Just over a mile into the trail you reach a saddle area with incredible views in both directions. This was basically the first experience we had with how vast and impressive the big bend is. It's very windy up here as we cross this chair behind us. Views, although I almost lost my hat leaving this section, look back as it is an amazing vantage point for the Big House, one of Big Ben's most prominent peaks, most of the elevation was quite gradual in the way up, but in this last section we had about 10 curves. to get to the top thank the trail team on this one this trail is incredibly well maintained as we continued climbing we got hit by the wind but the trail started to give way to the amazing scenery of the big bend.

We reached the top. It's very windy up here, but check out these views, although we didn't have a really clear day. It's still impressive with how far you can see the landscape from up here, look at the colors on the mountain right there, like blue and yellow, this I think is the best spot here with this rock, what do you think it gets a incredible reward at the end? and not a difficult hike, particularly some queues, but an amazing reward at the end after walking to the end of the trail to see all the different views from here we just sat and soaked it all in before heading back down and finishing. our snacks and enjoy the view until our next spot in big bend national park.

We had planned to go to the chisos lodge but due to construction we couldn't get there so we headed to the Panther Junction visitor center to see what they recommended we do so we will go to the hot springs but they are closed due to covid , so we will go to balanced rock and then drive to the canyon, food is a little hard to get. Come to Big Bend at this time the gas station was the only thing that was open. Had a lunch for lunch. I have a tuna salad sandwich, so bring your own food or plan to go to the gas station for our next park stop.

We decided to head over a balanced rock to get to the trailhead, you have to drive a seven mile rough dirt road. It was passable with a two-wheel drive car when we arrived, but I imagine there are certain times of year when our second trail of the day, this time towards a balanced rock, the road here was a little bumpy, but This is a good family hike as it is flat most of the way and uphill right at the end, the terrain here is pretty crazy. It reminds me a lot of Joshua Tree in Southern California. 75 of this trail is simply walking through a wash in the sand back to the rocks.

I see people coming down right there, so I think we're almost at the balance of the rocks. Draw a quarter mile, save your energy for last as it's a little tricky to get to the top and with all the people there's rock in balance right there, pops that manage to balance rock pop is six seven so it's a Quite a large space, keep in mind that This is a pretty popular photo spot in the park, so you'll definitely have to wait a bit if you want to take a photo with the rock. Well, we will begin the hike back to the car and then continue on to the scenic drive and the Santa Lena portion of Big Bend, that will be it for our day.

Josh has said that this is one of the less traveled national parks, but it is absolutely incredibly beautiful. It is definitely worth coming here. Dad gives him the go-ahead. It took us a little while to get back to the main road on the seven-mile dirt stretch, but we eventually headed toward Santalena Canyon. This is our last stop and our day in Big Bend, we are going to hit the road. Drive to Santa Lena Canyon with plenty of outings along the way to see viewpoints. This scenic drive is probably the best thing you can do with a day in the park.

It's 30 miles each way to the end of the road, but along the way you get some great scenic views. into the vast landscape of Big Bend and is a fantastic introduction to the park. This is one of the best viewpoints along the way. I think it's called Sodal Viewpoint, but I hope I pronounce it correctly. Definitely stop here after riding the entire trail. Soto Viewpoint. It was by far the best view on the scenic drive, so our destination is there, it's the Santa Lena Canyon walls that we will hike through once we get there, pretty crazy because they are 1500 feet high, but it doesn't seem so high when you are very far from here from there we continued our journey towards another viewpoint, this time for a rock formation called mule ears.

I would say they look like mule ears. What do you think? Let me know in the comments before we get to the canyon we had. One more stop and it was at the cast only visitor center, whilst part of the visitor center was closed due to Covid you could still look around and see many information plaques about the history of the area. There was also a store here but it was closed when we got there before you go be sure to check out the historic Magdalena House that is behind the store. This is where we were walking this morning and then out there was the rock and then we went in and to the right.

Now we are here at the visitor center and heading towards the mouth of the canyon. As you leave the visitor center and head into the canyon, there are a few other opportunities to stop and see the ruins of some of the farms. about the history of the area if that is something that interests you then keep your eyes open as you drive there is also another viewpoint on the right that looks back the way you came towards the chisos mountains this is our last viewpoint it is the santa alina viewpoint Canyon and we're going to park and then walk there.

You definitely don't want to miss this one, as it's a great way to understand the scale of the canyon before hiking into it and setting out on our final trail. For our day in Big Bend National Park, Santa Alina Canyon is incredibly popular and for good reason it's hard to beat the beauty of this section of the park. You guys look at this incredible view and we can still walk this trail here. Well, the Big River here creates a natural border between the United States and Mexico, this river basically serves as a border for 118 miles along Big Bend National Park.

If you want to hike back to the canyon it is about a mile and a half round trip with 600 feet of elevation gain on the switchbacks even though this trail has a good amount of uphill I would definitely recommend it as the views of the river and the canyon are incredible. However, I have heard from many people that it is quite brutal to do so. in the heat of summer also note that the trail doesn't really lead anywhere it just ends at the river so we took the curves and now we are walking into the canyon it is absolutely amazing very much like what I noticed in the Carlsbad Caverns video This is another one of those places that can never be done justice with video footage, even with my wide angle lens it was difficult to capture the entire canyon so definitely come see it for yourself and see this huge rock.

Right here I think the end of the trail is on the other side of that, after passing that big rock we got to the end of the trail which is where everyone was hanging out and sitting in the water. Pop says it's not worth coming all the time. Over here you could see from the back, it's fun being on the Rio Grande, although that's true and you're going to put your feet on my feet, baby, not the rest of me, but my feet. to get my feet to the big river safely like a real cowboy, so dad's last request for this road trip video was to put his feet or our feet in the big river, here we go without getting hurt, it's cold, yeah, My feet haven't.

I've seen the sun in a long time, dirty feet and the big river, that's all for this road trip video. I hope you've enjoyed exploring western Texas with us over the past five days. Make sure to like and subscribe and we'll see you in the next video