The Rio Grande Chronicles

Prologue: Disaster averted

The American Southwest never gets old. It was time to make another trip there, the first with Tintin. We had never flown from an airport in DC before this. With an early morning flight, we had booked a stay-park-and-fly package at the Aloft. With about a week to go, I was getting a google maps estimate of how long the shuttle ride was from the hotel to the airport terminal. Not that I really needed to, as, you know, it’s an airport hotel after all. It said 38 minutes. What ? Took me a few seconds to realize that the hotel was at Dulles, and the flight was out of Reagan International! Double checking even somewhat superfluous details of our plans allowed us to overcome my stupidity. We barely managed to get a deal at the Crystal City Hilton, and safely made our flight to Albuquerque in the morning.

This trip was going to be to the Southeast quadrant of the Four Corners region. That’s New Mexico, the land of enchantment. We had it all planned out to cover the northern part of the state, with a couple of places in Eastern Arizona that we missed on previous trips. We have learned over the years that it helps to keep plans as flexible as we can, particularly when mother nature throws a curveball at you, just in case. And so it happened. I was keeping an eye on the National Weather Service bulletins, and as luck would have it, we made a big change to our plans with only a few days to go, swapping a large part of the itinerary in New Mexico and Arizona with the big one. Literally. Big Bend National Park. Last minute changes don’t always work out. We were lucky that it did this time. Not that Big Bend wasn’t a place in our bucket list. Quite the contrary — we had talked about going there in winter for a long time, it being one of the few national parks where the colder months are the high season, because of, what else, the searing Texas heat in the summer. This is a park where some visitor centers are closed in summer, and restaurant hours are longer in the winter — you get the drift. What puzzled us was that the pictures and videos we saw looked great, yet you hardly ever heard about the place. Maybe the remote location had something to do with it, but then so are Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. Later we reasoned that it also had to be the fact that it isn’t a great summer destination for families. And in winter, we hardly saw any kids on the trail unlike most other parks that we have been to.

Day 1: The moonrise that was not to be, and no, that’s not snow.

Even though Big Bend became the major destination with the last minute change in plans, we were not going to abandon New Mexico altogether. In fact, what made our decision easier was that we both really really wanted to go to White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico, which was going to be on the way farther south to Texas and, you guessed it, Big Bend. And it was full moon on our day of arrival. Google “white sands full moon” and you will understand.

Being next to the Missile Range where the US military does all the testing, visiting White Sands requires a bit of extra planning. The road to the park can close on short notice. The park closes at 6 but you have to get in by 5, and opens only at 7 in the winter. Moonrise was at 4:45, and our flight arrival at 11. With a three and a half hours drive, it was going to be tight. If everything went right, from timely flight to successfully skipping the counter at the car rental, to avoiding traffic, to being efficient with eating lunch on the way, we could make it in time to see the moon rise over the mountains, and cast its soft glow on the white sands.

And it all worked to perfection. Except one thing. New Mexico gets upwards of 320 days of sun in the year, one of the top areas in the US in that regard, maybe even better than Southern California. And this was one of those 45 days. As we got closer to the park, and eventually got on to Dunes drive at about 4, it was pretty clear that the moon was going to hide from us on this day. We did manage to climb over a few dunes, but without the sun shining through and sculpting the sandscape with long shadows bringing out the striking texture that White Sands is so famous for, the magic you see in pictures wasn’t there. Tintin still had time to make a few sand castles, and I managed to get disoriented in the dunes, something that reminded me of my poor navigation skills anytime I am outside of a car! I did drop a pin in google maps where we parked our car, and Rumpa did not lose her bearings, so we eventually made it out of the dunes safely.

After we went back to the hotel, disappointed, we checked NWS forecast for the morning.It said the cloud cover was going to move east at about 7, right after sunrise, and exactly when the park opens! The forecast had to be pretty much perfect by the minute for it to work, as we had a long drive ahead. We wanted to get to Big Bend before sunset, and with short winter days, that was going to be a challenge if we didn’t leave White Sands early. In other words, we couldn’t afford to wait until the sun eventually fought off the clouds.

Day 2: Shadows of White Sands, and the moon makes a comeback

It’s all about the shadows. Just compare these photos from those of Day 1. Yes, the white sand is unique. Heck, it’s not even sand. It’s gypsum. In fact, the largest gypsum dune field in the world. There are the hardy Yucca plants standing like sentries providing a dramatic contrast to the white backdrop, and the mountains rising at the back. But without the shadows, the place just doesn’t come alive in the same way. The longer the shadows, the better, as it brings out the ever changing waves in the sand created by wind. Which means early or late in the day. As we were driving to the park gates, only 15 minutes away, the sun made its appearance above the mountains. We were in luck! No moon, but many more sand castles atop numerous dunes later, we had finally experienced it the way it was meant to be. They test missiles in this pristine place ? The Health app said we covered 2.1 miles on our dune hike. This was Tintin’s longest, and his first time waking up before sunrise, not counting the times he did to catch a morning flight. Last evening, he was upset that the sand got into his shoes. He didn’t want to go back to the dunes again. But once he did, he didn’t care about shoes. He also did a good job trying to keep me close to the trail markers. Maybe he did realize that I was prone to get lost in the dunes. The tradeoff was that you need to get away from the dunes to lose the footsteps and find pristine sand. There hadn’t been much wind the night before, which usually “resets” it. Nonetheless, the experience of hiking in the white sand at sunrise will rank pretty high up there.

The rest of the day was a race against the sun to get to Big Bend. We were lucky to have found a room at Chisos Mountains Lodge, the only accommodation inside the park, and we didn’t want to drive in the dark on mountain roads in an area that is as remote as it gets. We were making pretty good time of the almost 7 hour drive after leaving White Sands at around 10. Then we got greedy as we reached the small town of Marfa for a late lunch. From this point, we could either take the direct route to the park, or we could drive route 170 along the Mexican border, recommended by many as one of the most scenic mountain passes in the US, passing through Big Bend Ranch State Park. The weather was great, and we could still reach by dusk without stops. But a long day’s drive, then a full lunch immediately followed by the winding mountain road was a bit too much for Tintin. He became sick. It wasn’t a good situation to be in. We had to press on because of the remote terrain. But we couldn’t drive fast making matters worse for Tintin. To his credit, he held on just fine. The drive was spectacular indeed in late day sun, but we were obviously more concerned about reaching the lodge safely. By this time, we had lost enough time that we had to drive over an hour in the dark.

An unexpected turn of event made it easier on all of us. As we were rounding a curve approaching the Chisos Mountains, Rumpa casually asked what the glow behind the hills was. A second later, there it was — the super moon, rising! It was a dramatic moment, making up for the failed attempt to see moonrise at White Sands the night before. Here we were amid a mini-crisis situation, with the moon keeping us company, guiding us safely to our destination. Other than the emotional impact, the practical advantage was that the drive in the dark wasn’t so dark after all! We experienced how it felt like to have the super moon as the only source of light for as far as the eye can see with mountains all around, by momentarily switching off our headlights a few times. By the time we were negotiating the final switchbacks to descend into the Chisos Basin, we were in good spirits again. An eventful day that began with chasing the sun finally ended with us sipping a drink in the balcony of our room at Casa Grande Lodge looking out to the moonlit Chisos Mountains. Big Bend is one of the best places for stargazing, a well-known dark sky preserve. Except it was the super moon night! You can only get one or the other. Something that I heard repeated by many over the next couple of days.

Day 3: A perfect day at Big Bend — Part 1

If you are one of those rare people who have actually been reading this travel blog, you might be wondering why I named it “The Rio Grande Chronicles”. Well, our modified itinerary essentially went up and down the mighty Rio Grande river through New Mexico and Texas. It is one the most important rivers in the Southwest, second only to Colorado, in its impact on making human settlements feasible along its banks in high desert country. By the time it reaches Big Bend, and defines the US-Mexico border, it’s not the mighty river anymore, most of its water already getting sucked out by dams and reservoirs. The river creates one of the three diverse ecosystems that coexist inside the park — the green valley, the arid desert, and the mountains.

We got our first good look at Rio Grande on this day. We managed to hike up the hillside and then get down to the banks of the river at Santa Elena canyon. Tintin was in really good spirits, and appeared enamored by the enormous variety of cacti along the way. We never found the cave at the end of the trail that a fellow hiker told us about, but that wasn’t a deal breaker. At 1500 feet, it is not a mile deep like the Grand Canyon, but it still is awe-inspiring.

Day 3: A perfect day at Big Bend — The Chisos Basin (Part 2)

The Chisos basin, where the Chisos Mountains lodge sits, is one of those rare places where the mountains hug you from all directions. Anywhere you look up, you are humbled by the majesty of the innumerable peaks. Yosemite valley comes to mind, as another example. The Chisos Mountains is the only mountain range in the US that is wholly contained within the boundaries of a national park. If you are staying at the lodge, you might not even have to go anywhere else to enjoy sunrise and sunset, or any number of great hikes. Heck, you could spend hours just sitting at the patio of the lodge restaurant.

The “Window View”, a mere few hundred feet from our room, was a great spot, where I found myself at sunrise. As the name implies, a distant valley interrupts two towering peaks which get lit up by the sun rising behind the Casa Grande peak. On this day, the full moon was still up, perfectly positioned in the “window”, and fought really hard to keep itself visible for the first half hour or so after sunrise. At sunset, the same twin peaks became silhouettes with the setting sun creating behind them the most intense of skies you would ever see.

Day 3: A perfect day at Big Bend — Part 3

On our way back from the canyon, we also hiked the lovely Burros Mesa trail, walking through a variety of desert plants, pink cactus being the most conspicuous, right up to base of the imposing walls of the mesa. Perfect weather, and a perfect day at the park. We ate at the lodge restaurant, and given the location and the constraints that brings with it, the food was nothing short of awesome. We slept early.

Day 4: A missed sunrise (Part 1)

Usually I am the only one who wakes up for sunrise when there is a good one waiting to be witnessed. This time around, I had company. Tintin and Rumpa were also up for it, both at White Sands, and on this day, our second at Big Bend. The 45 minute drive to Boquillos canyon at the far east end of the park was his second sunrise chase in 3 days. The pre-dawn colors behind the mountains that greeted us on our way is the sort of thing that gets you hooked. You no longer struggle with waking up in the middle of the night to catch the sunrise, even though you are usually anything but an early riser. The hike up and then down into the canyon was shorter and easier than Santa Elena, except the wind started blowing really hard, sweeping up a lot of dirt and sand, something that Tintin didn’t like at all. We kept taking breaks, and kept going as long as we could, until we felt like there wasn’t any point in pushing farther on, although we couldn’t really see the end of the trail. We were the only souls on the trail, and we didn’t see any other cars at the trailhead. We never saw the sun shine on the canyon walls, like we had seen in the pictures. As we were heading out, it made an appearance above the south butte, and I was puzzled as to how this could be a good sunrise spot. As it turned out, it wasn’t. If only we talked to a ranger to find out, instead of the lodge reception guy! Nonetheless, it was spectacular, a bit wider than Santa Elena, but still well worth the hike, but probably best for sunset. Clouds could be seen moving in at higher elevation as we started our drive back to the lodge through the valley. By the time our ascent up the Chisos Mountains began, the car was snaking through those fast moving clouds, a mountain driving experience that never fails to pump up the adrenaline. As the view into the Chisos basin opened up at the highest point on the road, we were greeted with the incredible panorama of the sunlit mountains interrupted by the fluffy clouds.

Day 4: A mini-soak (Part 2)

After lunch on the second full day at Big Bend, we went to the Rio Grande Village. This is the part of the park from where the river is most easily accessible, and provides a stark contrast to the arid Chihuahuan desert. A variety of plant and animal lives thrive here. The Nature walk was underwhelming, but we did fulfill another one of our wishes, that of going off paved roads in a park. Not that I would recommend anyone take a risk of voiding their car rental contract, but once we heard the ranger say “I would have no concerns” if you drive the Hot Springs road in that SUV, we decided to risk it. It was pretty short, and not bad at all except for some narrow gravel segments with steep falls! But the real treat was at the end of the drive. A short hike through some unique wave-like rock formations with dense striations led us to a little hot spring right beside the cold Rio Grande. We weren’t dressed for a full soak as many of our fellow hikers, but we still had a great relaxing hour at the hot spring before heading back to the lodge. By this time, the wind had started to pick up and clouds started to pour in. Ominous weather was on the way.

Day 5: The bad weather day

Something happened on our final night at Big Bend that reminded us about the remoteness of where we were, and how much effort it takes to maintain the excellent facilities out there. They have a choice of secluded cabins and motel-style rooms, a really nice restaurant with Texan food (the Texas chopsticks were a hit for all of us, and the jalapeño glazed pork chop was fantastic), a convenience store, a visitors center, laundry services (albeit with washers that had to be banged on to get it to accept the quarters) — pretty much everything you would need, without having to drive 100 miles. But things can and does get iffy. The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, and Tintin immediately went “We have to get out”. Nobody else was out, and it looked like there was actually a power cut. I recalled that a note on the back of the door did say “power cuts occur frequently”. Why ? The wind. As a ranger explained in the morning, whenever the weather pattern changes, Big Bend gets hit with strong winds. And it’s variable — it could be calm in the valley near Rio Grande, and whipping at 10000 feet. On this particular night, the crews were working through the night to restore power lines that were torn. We were thankful. Power did come back on later in the morning, but the weather was turning nasty.

When we finalized our trip plans, we kind of planned around the eventual bad weather that was to arrive midweek, keeping Day 5 as mostly a travel day. We still wanted to go on a short walk around the Chisos basin, but with thick clouds, you couldn’t really see any of the numerous peaks. We also had to abandon plans for going part way through the Lost Mines Trail, one of the best in the park where you could not only look down into a gorgeous canyon, but also see the expansive vista in the distance beyond the valley. We would have to essentially walk through the clouds with gusty wind. Weather was only going to get worse, and we decided to get out of the mountains as soon as we could. Before we left, we made a quick stop at the visitors center where Tintin took his first oath as a Junior Ranger and earned his first JR badge!

We stopped for lunch at Pizza Hut, and were making pretty good time on our long drive back to New Mexico. Tintin did pretty well, occasionally spending time studying the map when he needed break from singing or listening to the “O Gaan”. The plan was to get to Guadalupe Mountains National Park an hour or two before sunset. Not only did we not see the sun the entire day, when we got close to the park, we pretty much couldn’t see anything at all beyond a few feet on the road. Dense fog had taken over, and the roads started to become slick. We ended up spending time looking at exhibits and watching videos at the Visitors Center, any kind of hike being out of the question. This being primarily a hiker’s park, there was’t much else to do.

Day 6: The Big Room

It had snowed overnight, and it still was snowing as we got ready to leave. Our plan appeared to work out perfectly. As the weather got nasty on the ground, we planned to escape underground, to Carlsbad Caverns! We hadn’t accounted for the fact that park staff did not live underground. When we got to the gates well before opening time, we heard that there was at least a 2-hour delay in opening. This was the first time we found a national park closed due to weather, ironically, in a place that is not affected by weather, and is always at a balmy 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

We decided to wait, even though it meant that we couldn’t get to Santa Fe before dark. Carlsbad Caverns wasn’t in our original itinerary. We thought we had seen our fair share of caverns, and didn’t care much about seeing another one. But we were glad that we did. On the suggestion of an elderly couple we met at the Big Bend restaurant (who were thoroughly entertained by Tintin with his long narration of an imaginary movie plot), we decided to do the King’s Palace tour with a ranger. To our pleasant surprise, Tintin was at his best behavior throughout the hour and a half. We didn’t see a lot of cavern, but heard lots of cool stories. Tintin was the youngest (and thus the lightest) of the group, and was chosen by the ranger to demonstrate how cave explorers climbed ropes to find newer rooms in caves, dangling him from one! Then there was the darkness demo, when the ranger turned off all lights. We learned, and proved to ourselves, that if you wave your hands in front of your eyes in complete darkness (as this truly was), the brain conjures up the image of your hands moving. You see it but you don’t. That was fascinating! After the tour, we walked the Big Room. It wasn’t Big Bend, but this wasn’t just another cavern either. Everything was at a different, grand, scale. They say the size totaled 55 football fields. Some of the formations were pretty extraordinary, not just the plain old stalactites and stalagmites.

After a hearty lunch at the in-house cafe, we began our second long drive in as many days. We drove through Roswell, the UFO capital of the world. Didn’t see one. Our destination was Santa Fe. The heart of the land of enchantment. Holidays are a magical time here. Paper lanterns called luminaries line the rooftops of the charming adobe-style houses. The luminaries were glowing by the time we got there. Dinner was the first of several New Mexican meals on our trip at Del Charro, the well-reviewed in-house restaurant of the Inn of the Governers where we were staying. It was all about chilli. Back to the room, we were excited to light the native-American style fireplace called Kiva. I didn’t want to take any chances on the first day, so we got help in starting the fire. With freezing weather outside, it was nice to sleep with the fire on.

Day 7 Part 1: Rocks and tent ?

Rocks, particularly red rocks, make up a big part of the landscape in the American southwest. And when you drive the historic Route 66 through these red rocks, you might come across tepees, or “tents”, like those seen at the Cozy Cone motel in the Cars movie. But rocks and tent together ? That’s what you get in Tent Rocks National Monument, less than an hour out of Santa Fe. Tent-shaped, striated rock formations from a few to a few hundred feet tall rise up side-by-side, parted by a narrow slot canyon. It doesn’t have quite the same warm colors of Antelope Canyon, but it’s also way more fun. For one thing, there is no guide to rush you through, and you have to scramble through the rocks to get by. Tintin was having a little too much fun scrambling and jumping! We turned around before the steep upward climb began on the canyon trail, but had spent enough time to appreciate one of the unique landscapes one could ever see.

Day 7 Part 2: High Road to Taos

I am starting off today’s post with a photo of the unique New Mexican holiday decoration, paper bags with candles, called luminaries. All the houses are lined with these in the holiday season. With the orange glow of the adobe architecture, it can be quite magical.

Driving out of Tent Rocks on Friday, we debated where to go in the afternoon. The two possibilities were Ghost Ranch, a local red rock favorite, or one of the two scenic roads to the charming little mountain town of Taos. If we went all the way to either destination, we had no chance of coming back to Santa Fe at a reasonable time. Ultimately we decided to drive the High Road to Taos through the Sangria de Cristo mountains. Our first stop was the Santuario de Chimayo church, A National Historic Landmark. It’s a famous Catholic pilgrimage site, and the unique adobe architecture has attracted visitors from all over the world, and has made it one of the most photographed churches in the US. Shortly after that, as we were wondering about where to stop for lunch among the tiny mountain villages on our way, we stumbled onto the famous Rancho de Chimayo restaurant. Our third straight New Mexican meal wasn’t as unique as its reputation suggested. The famous prickly pear lemonade was pretty strong though! The plan was to move over to the low road about halfway through the drive, and get back to Santa Fe. Once we got to the turnoff, on a whim we decided to instead keep going to Taos. We reached Taos plaza about a half hour before sunset with the adobe orange of the houses accentuated by the late day sun. We spent some time in a gift shop, where Tintin found one of those fill-to-the-brim rock bags. Later we watched the holiday lights and luminaries come on as we sipped coffee. We took the low road back to Taos. Had it been daytime, I’m sure the scenery would have been as good as the High road, if not better, snaking along the banks of Rio Grande.

For dinner, we went to Paper Dosa. Not counting the “pau” and instant “bhaji” we got by with on the first night at Big Bend, this was our first meal on the trip that could be called Indian, although there really was a nice touch of fusion, blending in new mexican flavors, such as — what else — green chilli cheese dosa. The cashew calamari served with uttapam was great too. We had a brief drive around Santa Fe plaza before returning to the hotel. On this second night, I had gained enough confidence to not only start the fire myself, but managed to use up all of the wood through the night.

Day 8 Part 1: A different kind of cave

There are enough locations within a day trip’s drive around Santa Fe, including many National Monuments, to fill a week or two. We only had two days, and this was our last full day. We chose Bandelier National Monument that features preserved cliff dwellings of the Pueblo Indians. It really is amazing to think about how they lived holed inside the carved thick-walled caves on very steep and tall rock faces. All they used were ladders. The park service has kept many to climb up to some of the caves. Not surprisingly, this was paradise for Tintin. He didn’t miss climbing any. And he would have happily stayed in the caves as long as we would have allowed him to!

Day 8 Part 2: The last mountain drive and a final surprise

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving the Jemez Mountain Trail, stopping for our final New Mexican meal at Los Rojos in Jemez Springs. There we finally got a chance to answer “Christmas” to a server’s question of “green or red”. We are talking about New Mexican Chile, of course. The drive had a lot of variety, with lush forest in the northern part, and colorful red rocks in the western section, which we luckily drove in late afternoon light. We missed Gilman tunnels, Soda Dam and some other spots, as we wanted to come down from the mountains by dark. There was one last activity remaining. In the Rockies trip last year, we made sure to plan for a ride every day or a two in all kinds of vehicles on land, water and air, to keep Tintin interested. This time, there was none of that, but he was such a good sport. Never complained, as long we played “O Gaan” (the title track of Yeti Obhijan) over and over again in the car, or let him sing it at the top of his lungs. It was finally time to give him a nice surprise. After we bought the tickets to the Sandia Peak Tram and he could see the gondola through the glass wall, he was ecstatic. We felt like this gondola ride was a bit underrated. 10000 ft is not peanuts, and the best thing about the ride was that on one side you saw the lights of the reasonably sized city of Albuquerque, and on the other side the tram lines passed really really close (as in a few feet) to the rocks on the Sandia Mountains hillside. That paired with commentary about the TWA plane crash in one of the canyons we passed over made for an interesting ride! We retired to the airport hotel for our final night after returning the rental car.

Epilogue:

This time we didn’t take a red eye flight home on our return. That was super helpful. We did not feel as tired when we got home. Unlike last year, Tintin didn’t refuse to come home from airport. Normally, if it is up to him, he would spend every night in a hotel. Another winter trip, another jaunt to the American Southwest was over. For Tintin, this may have been the first trip when actual memories were made. A lot of his toys these days, including airplanes and rockets, apparently take people to “Big Bend National Park”, and then onwards to South America! I’ll end with some pictures taken by him with his kiddicam (no less than a real 1 megapixel camera), and other things that made memories for him, including junior ranger badges he earned in the national parks. So long, Rio Grande.

A friend said I must have a lot of patience to write these travel diaries. I thought he was talking about the few who might actually be reading these. If you are one of those, thank you.