Texas to New Mexico

Half of Opal against a desert sunset.

Greetings from Taos, NM! We’ve been in Taos for a week and in New Mexico for more than 2 weeks. We are really taking to this slower pace and have done a good job sticking to our resolution of spending more time outside. In less than a month we have been to 3 national parks, and will finish out the month in our fourth! We’ve also put in 3 full days of skiing—but more on that later.

 The last I wrote I believe we were in Big Bend National Park, which remains one of my favorite parts of this journey to date! After that we headed to Marfa, TX, which is a weird but cool place. The minimalist artist Donald Judd moved there in the seventies and since then it’s become somewhat of a hotspot for artists and art tourism. You definitely have to search out where to go, because it’s kind of dead if you’re not in one of the curated stores or trendy coffee shops. It could have just been the time of year, but at some points it was literally just you and a tumbleweed rolling down the street…which I guess is part of the charm! I loved the aesthetic of the restaurants and shops, and while there was some pretentiousness in the air, we found the shop owners, baristas, and other people we interacted with extremely friendly. One of the artist/shop owners that we met was the nicest man from Texas who told us all about his life and gave us a set of notecards of his artwork as an engagement present. We also connected with the owner of a vintage store and talked about Dolly Parton’s politics, got really great book and podcast recommendations from her, and we were all hugging as we said goodbye! I left feeling inspired and really good about the purchases I made and conversations we had.

One of Donald Judd's minimal concrete structures in the desert.

A full moon rising in the afterglow of sunset behind a store in Marfa.

Next we drove through the beautiful Guadalupe Mountains and into Carlsbad, NM. Carlsbad has some oil drilling and is literally a stinky town, but we stayed in a free spot outside of town closer to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It was basically just a big parking lot off the highway, but it was far enough off to not be too loud, and was surrounded by beautiful desert and mountains. We only stayed for a few days during the week, but after work we were able to see the unbelievable Carlsbad Caverns, and do a short hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. You have to see the cavern for yourself, but it’s basically a magical underground drip castle fairyland.

Approaching the massive Guadalupe Mountains with the road stretched out in front of them.

A close up of a half drippy half coral-like stalagmite at Carlsbad Caverns.

Carlsbad was really just a stop through on our way to Santa Fe—but it was a pretty great stop through! It was about time to be near some city amenities, specifically a Planet Fitness to shower. We had stayed at an RV park in Marfa that had free showers, so it had only been a few days! (I’m not going to lie though, we aren’t the cleanest people…) Santa Fe has National Forest on both sides of it, so it’s a great place to boondock (free camping with no hookups). There were other people with the same idea, and I can imagine all the spots are filled up in the spring and summer! We weathered a blizzard while we were there but were still able to get in and out of the national forest. On some of the days that we went down town we left our trailer at our camping spot. We usually gauge our decision to do that based on the surrounding area. There were other boondockers that were doing it, and we have a wheel lock that would make Opal really hard to steal.

Opal in the Santa Fe National Forest the day after the snow storm.

In Santa Fe we went to Meow Wolf per lots of recommendations, which was really cool. It’s hard to explain but it’s basically like an immersive art installation/alternate universe playhouse. We of course went to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum, one of my favorite artists, and walked around the historic downtown looking at all the beautiful turquoise jewelry. We got to have dinner with a good friend of mine from high school who moved to Santa Fe a couple years ago, and it was great to catch up and share thoughts on our experiences of moving from a big city to have a slower pace of life!

A view of the back of me looking at one of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings.

Me climbing into a clothes dryer/alternate universe portal at Meow Wolf.

We cut our Santa Fe trip a little short when we found out Corey had MLK day off, and our Ikon ski passes weren’t blacked out at Taos Ski Valley! (Our ski pass blacks out days on popular weekends, so we weren't able to go on the Saturday and Sunday of MLK weekend, but Monday was allowed). Taos lets campers and RVs park for a week for free in one of their lots, so since we were planning on skiing again this past weekend, we decided to stay the whole week. Tuesday-Friday were workdays, and it was so nice to just wake up and be in one place. I experimented with some new macramé techniques and started a new book. On Saturday and Sunday we skied, and let me tell you, skiing out west is no joke. Until I met Corey I hadn’t skied in about 12 years, and now I’m on my third winter of skiing occasionally. In other words, I’m not that good. Once I finally figured out that in order to turn correctly my boots needed to be VERY tight, I got a little more confident. We accidentally ended up on a couple of short black diamonds, and I actually did okay and didn’t cry. On Sunday I was very sore, but I managed to put in a whole day. We accidentally ended up on a slope with moguls (the trails aren’t very well marked), and then we found ourselves stopped on a chairlift for what felt like an eternity with no safety bar at the highest point of the lift. Besides these traumatizing events, I am not completely turned off from skiing. I will however never go on a chairlift with no safety bar if I can help it.

The epic Rio Grande Gorge Bridge stretching across the canyon that the Rio Grande has cut into the earth.

Opal in our Taos Ski Valley camping spot, looking small against the massive, snow covered evergreen trees.