Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Alpine & Davis Mountains State Park
We got into Texas on Monday 29th December and our first destination was Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The park is the world’s premier example of a fossil reef from the Permian Era but most importantly the park is known for its extensive hiking trails. By then it was absolutely freezing and the forecast for the next day was for 50 mph winds so we weren’t sure how much of the mountains we would see. The kids got their ranger books and we thought we would wait and see what the morning brought.
The campsite within the park was basically a carpark at the foot of the trail heads. We had the heating on full tilt all night long and were still absolutely freezing. Luckily Father Christmas brought the boys some fleecy blankets in their stockings as we were now wrapping the kids in 1 blanket then putting a duvet and then another fleecy blanket on top of them – as well as wearing socks and jumpers on top of our pyjamas. Not exactly the ‘year of sunshine’ we’d planned.
We woke on Tuesday to even colder temperatures. The Ranger we bumped into doing her rounds (presumably to check no one had frozen to death in the campsite over night which I’m sure must be a very real danger!!) told us that the temperature was -15 and that with the winds it was probably -30. Perfect weather for a walk then!!
There was ice on the ground and the freezing fog meant we couldn’t see the top of mountains. We’d already been warned off the ‘big hike’ to the highest point in Texas due to the 50mph winds so instead opted for the walk to Devils Hall through the canyon, which would presumably offer some shelter!
As soon as we got ‘down’ into the canyon we found several feet of snow on the ground. It felt like we’d arrived in Narnia. Lots of woodland all covered in snow and the huge mountains on either side of us. Actually was really fun, despite the cold. So we followed the ‘wash’ of the river, which basically involved us scrambling over up and down rocks, which were covered in snow and ice. It was much like our hike in cathedral rock but with every surface covered in ice. The kids completely loved it, particularly Charlie who seemed to think that slipping over repeatedly was somehow a badge of honor!!
We got to the ‘steps’ which were just that. Where the strata of the rock had broken off and left a perfect staircase in the side of the canyon. We met a couple there and chatted to them about the National Parks and how many they’d visited. Over the last 10 years they had seen 20 so we were fairly chuffed with our total which stands at 13!! Hilariously just as we were saying goodbye they asked us if Charlie was ‘the famous Charlie’. I thought for a minute that they were talking about Prince Charles. Then realised they meant “Ow Charlie that hurt – Charlie bit my finger!” the kid from You Tube.
Think I had frost bite in my fingers by the time we got back to the van a few hours later. We had thought we would spend several days hiking the Park but the weather got the better of us and we decided we should move on – as quickly as possible to find warmer climes. Ha Ha Ha – little did we know!!
The kids went in to collect their Junior Ranger Badges and met a family who had created a website and badges of their own for Ranger Stanley (like Flat Stanley but for National Parks) and so they were very excited to take photo of English kids with their badge!!
We then left to drive to Alpine for the night. We should have guessed by the name what it would have in store weather wise…
The condensation inside the van as I made soup for lunch was freezing on the windows. Once we got on the road we discovered the mountains had hidden the weather outside. Freezing fog was covering the whole windscreen and as we have no heated windscreen we had to keep stopping every 3 miles in the dark to scrape it with a CD case!
It was terrifying – little did we know this was the beginning of a ‘storm’ that would leave us driving in even worse conditions before the week was out. Driving down long straight roads with nothing around when suddenly there was a Prada store on the side of the road. As many of you know I love a handbag so was gutted to discover it was only an ‘ironic’ art installation – ha bloody ha! The town of Marfa is full of art galleries and minimalist art installations just like this one. Also famous for its mysterious ‘lights’ which can be seen from Route 67 no one knows their source – UFO’s or some other paranormal activity – there was no way we were going to spot them in the fog!!
Charlie and I sat in the back and read through some of the kids road trip guide books – fantastic National Geographic book – and made notes of all the places we would like to see in the States we are to visit in the next few months. Worked well to distract us from the terrifying driving conditions!! We got to Alpine at about 8pm and took one look at the campsite we’d earmarked and turned around and headed back to one we’d passed a couple of miles back called the Lost Alaskan RV Park. Still not picking up on the signs here…
We woke up on New Years Eve to snow. Well at least it had warmed up a bit!! We decided that driving up more mountains to the state park, we had booked into for New Years Eve was perhaps a bad idea. So we decided to stay here in Alpine for one more night to wait for the roads to clear a bit. We spent the day doing chores – shopping, laundry (warmest place by far – I had a lovely couple of hours in there snuggled up in front of the tumble dryer with my book) and trying to defrost the pipes in Frankie sufficiently so that we could refill with water and empty the waste water!
The roads were like an ice rink so we slipped around town a bit. This iceberg fell off the back of the van when we parked at the supermarket.
Bought some bits to try to insulate the door a bit and stop the howling gale that comes from it and from round the fridge!
I’d like to say we had a wild New Years Eve in the Cowboy Bar in town – but we didn’t!! We wrapped ourselves in blankets and tucked into pizza in front of our TV. Lovely!
Thursday 1st January we woke up with no hangover and determined to join the 1st Day Hike at the Davis Mountains State Park (where we had planned to be for New Years Eve). As we checked out of the campsite we met a family from Belgium who had arrived very late the night before. Doing the same as us but having started in LA and bought an RV there. They are travelling with their 4 boys which made Frankie seem positively empty in comparison!! They had been caught in the storm and had arrived at Carlsbad Caverns only to be told it was closed so had driven 3 hours through the snow to get to the campsite. So we tentatively drove out of town and up into the mountains. Despite driving through some horrible icy roads, with snow everywhere once we got to the park it was completely clear and much much warmer.
We had a lovey hike with a group of about 20 people. We met a nice family from south Arica who have been living out here for 20 years. And a lovely couple with the sweetest dog, Piper, who was carrying her own back pack with supplies. The boys loved her!
Up the mountain to a spot where the boys were sent off with the GPS to find the Geocache which contained chocolates and sparkling grape juice – it was lovely!
The kids then spent most of the afternoon in the bird hide and biking around the campsite. We were hopeful that the worst of the weather had past and that we would be able to attend the Star Party we had booked for the following night at the McDonald Observatory just in Fort Davis. Sounded fabulous with huge telescopes and astronomers (guessing not the Russell Grant type) on hand to guide you through the fabulous Texan night skies.
However, half way through the evening John noticed that the battery power on the RV was dropping at an alarming rate. I won’t pretend to understand most of what that meant but it seemed like it wouldn’t be all that good if it disappeared completely. So we knew John was in for a restless night worrying about that. Then the freezing rain started which put paid to the idea of sleep for any of the rest of us.
When we woke up on Friday morning it was still raining and the trees all around us were covered in inches of solid ice. So much so that there were branches and trees down all over the park. The power in the park was out, it was still pouring down icy rain and our batteries had completely drained! Happy days!!
John spent hours out in the driving rain trying to work out what had happened and whether it was anything to do with the weather or whether it was our batteries that had given up the ghost (lots of weathers and whethers in that sentence). The kids and I shivered inside the only slighter van!
The star party seemed unlikely given the fact that the skies were full of clouds and icy rain storms and being up in the mountains far away from any civilistaion was not a great thought so we headed out and back to Alpine once again. Oh once we had found a ranger to jumpstart Frankie of course!
The 20 mile journey back down the mountain was nothing like it had been on the way up. This time the roads were covered in ice, driving ice rain made visibility almost zero and it seemed other than the tow trucks and gritters we were the only people stupid enough to brave it.
Back into the town of Alpine again and we found a nice man to look at the engine battery who declared it fine and then bought ourselves a battery charger to try to revive the leisure batteries inside the van and then checked back into the same campsite again!!
Totally unrecognizable from the day before. Every tree was covered in ice, branches weighed down to the ground, huge lakes of ice water all over the roads and paths! With the power dropping fast we didn’t dare put the heating or lights on in the van so the kids and I decamped to the Rec Room (games room which the kind campsite hosts declared a kids zone for the day due to the terrible weather).
We sat in the warm and built more lego and got chatting to a lovely Texan family, Valerie and Craig and their son Dale. Craig spent hours out in the cold with John trying to help him figure out what was draining our batteries and lending him yet another charger. Once it got dark we were all beginning to lose our sense of humour about the whole thing (actually that’s not true, we had lost it a along time before that we were just now very very fed up). At which stage Valerie and Craig insisted that they took us for dinner! So it was that we ended up spending a lovely evening, out of the van, out of the cold and with a lovely group of people (also traveling with them were their friends Bob and Terri and their kids) in a Mexican restaurant in Alpine. What total saviours they were! Made us laugh when they said… listening to our English accents and the name Charlie made them think of… Yes Charlie bit my finger – weird. Twice in a week!
So we went to bed with everything crossed that the batteries would be charged and be holding their charge by morning. Very grateful to have met such lovely generous people.
Saturday we woke up and all was right with the world once again. The sun was out. The icy rain had stopped. The temperatures were rising. The ice was thawing. And the battery was working!!!
One of the many leisure batteries we have seemed to have gone bang so John disconnected it and immediately the battery stopping draining!! Fix it Felix does it again – well with a bit of help from Craig!!
We left the campsite at lunchtime headed to Big Bend National Park where we were assured the forecast was for a week of sunshine!!
Wickenswanderings 