Day 5 Video

I’ll catch up on details later…

It’s Later now..

Alpine Texas to Las Cruces New Mexico.

Apparently we needed some sleep.  We have been waking up at 5ish, but today we woke up at 6:30 and to a pretty sunrise.  Weather called for cloudy skies with chance of showers.

I didn’t know what to expect from Big Ben National Park.  Have not heard much about it except it’s location, so I was interested on what we would see.  It was an amazing place to see.  If you ask me what is it like, I would comment think Death Valley/Zion/Capital Reef National Parks – it reminded me of all three of those.  The vastness of Death Valley, the Canyons of Zion, and the feel of Capital Reef.  I will definitely come back to explore more.

The nearest accommodation’s are in two towns that are 100 miles from the park.  So it takes about 1 1/2 hours to get to the entrance.  It was overcast as we road there with just a smattering of water felt.  The high cloud cover was actually great as it kept the temperature lower.  This is a desert area so the time to visit is the winter/spring months.

For our ride, we only needed to ride the road (only road) that takes you 33 miles to the end and back. We entered the park and documented our start at the entrance.

You climb at first through some big valleys and then you are treated with a desert vista as you descend into a vast valley with reefs and slot canyon out in the distant.  At one point the road was flooded and we went through it after we determined the depth.  

At the end is a vast slot canyon  – that slot canyon is Mexico.  After chatting with the ranger we headed back out and started our march to our next ride, which for us starts in Three Way AZ.

Again, fast long stretches’ of roads to get out.  We decided to take the interstate to get out of Texas.  We made it through El Paso and made the push to Las Cruces NM in order to get some sopapillas for dinner.