2013 04 05 - Carlsbad, NM to San Angelo, TX

Friday, April 5th, 2013

• Itinerary

Start - Carlsbad KOA, New Mexico
Stop - San Angelo KOA, New Mexico
Distance - 360 miles
Time - 6 hours
Route - Carlsbad south on Hwy 180 to Carlsbad Caverns, backtracking north on Hwy 180 to Hwy 396 (a much more country highway than expected) to get to south on Hwy 285 leading to the real Pecos, Texas and then on to Fort Stockton on I-10 for the first time, then northeast to San Angelo via Hwy 67

• Summary of the Day

Carlsbad KOA vs Whites City RV

There is an RV campground right outside of the Carlsbad caverns, at the small settlement of Whites City. I wish I had known that as we would have pushed through the town the previous night and probably saved at least an hour or so as the Carlsbad KOA is a good ways to the north of the town of Carlsbad. At night it would not have mattered much to have driven through the town before setting up camp - then in the morning we would have been able to get to the Caverns and off to Texas a lot sooner.

Carlsbad Caverns visitor center

A few miles south of the town on the Hwy 180 you'll get to the tiny settlement of Whites City which has a motel, a gas station, an RV campground, and a combo convenience and gift shop. That marks the turn NW that leads to the Caverns.

The drive up to the entrance of the Carlsbad Caverns is not too difficult in a 32' RV. Plenty of school and tour buses drive up the winding road and I didn't have any trouble. It's only about 7 miles but it takes a little longer than you think as you can't drive too fast.

The parking area had just enough room for our RV as there were several other buses and RVs.

Large Vehicle parking area at the visitor center

The visitor center is large enough and has a cafeteria, gift shop and book store in addition to the central information desk and ticket sales.

The Caverns themselves
You have a couple of options -
1) going down 750 feet via elevator to a central starting point for either a guided or self paced tour.
2) hiking in via the original Natural entrance which takes about 60 to 90 minutes to reach the same area as the elevator

With PezMiner being a bit hesitant, we opted for the elevator route down to the underground visitor center.

The self tour of the Big Room takes about 60 to 90 minutes, with a shortcut available also that would cut that in half.

At the shortcut is a sign to make it easy to cut through half of the Big Room tour

This was definitely the most impressive cavern I have ever been to - based solely on its sheer size and grandeur.  Over 14 football fields in area for the Big Room, you basically can walk through easily on a mostly level path in large almost oval route.

It is amazingly easy to walk through and small children and seniors were having no problem making it through. Several large groups of children would come through and there are plenty of places to either pass them by or let them go past. Since most folks go through the Big Room on their own, it is easy to spend as much time as you want at each interesting point along the way.

Lillber inside the Big Room

The Lion's Tail Stalactite and popcorn formation

Lots of helpful signs inside to help visitors understand each area

The Massive Gypsum layer and the scoring vertical holes

These caverns are a must see if you can make it to this part of the USA. None of the pictures I took can convey the height and size of the Big Room tour.


Long Drive through West and Central Texas
We weren't totally sure how far we would make it through west Texas. There is really nothing to see along the way.  Endless prairie.  Endless.  Did I say Endless enough?

We aimed for Fort Stockton for dinner and kids called for Pizza so the first thing we saw was a Pizza Hut. Sigh. Well - it worked sort of. They were out of the normal pizza dough so tried getting PezMiner the other dough but he didn't like it at all so FAIL. We got out of there after 9pm and weren't sure if any of the nearby RV camps would take late arrivals.  So back to the reliable "Come late if you need to" KOA chain. For a long cross country drive you know they will keep the light on for you with an easy self check in process.

The KOA on the path to Austin was still pretty far away - over two hours more, perhaps three. But it was in a certain town from my past that I had wanted to make it to if I could.

San Angelo in the Dark
This would be my first return trip to San Angelo in almost 25 years!  I had been stationed there at Goodfellow Air Force Base in 1989-90 for final training before I went to England. It was also there that I had the worst pain I had ever experienced - a rupturing appendix. I spent some time in the civilian hospital for my appendectomy which led to me moving back one class in tech school and staying a little longer in training. So I had some nostalgia for at least seeing the place the next day if possible.

The KOA was on the western side of town on the popular Lake Nasworthy. We pulled up for another late night arrival and settled in for the night without any problems. I am now an expert at setting up in the dark.

Achievement Unlock - Setting Up your RV in the Dark 7 Times in a Row (Meridian ID, Brigham City UT, Green River UT, Cortez CO, Albuquerque NM, Carlsbad NM, San Angelo TX)

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