About this Trip
We took this road trip for Spring Break 2024 with our kids 12 and 8. Our focus was to see three national parks: Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, and Guadelupe Mountains. This was a lot of fun, and did not require advance planning outside of general logistics except:
1. Get the Carlsbad reservations in advance.
2. If you want to do the peak or Devil's Summit at Guadelupe Mountains on Spring Break, start very early in the day or there will be nowhere to park.
Stay
We stayed at a Home 2 Suites for two nights in Carlsbad which was great. There is very little to do in Carlsbad besides the caverns, so it was nice that the hotel had it's own patio with games, grills, and a fire pit. They also had a nice workout facility.
Our next stay was two nights in an okay AirBnb in Cloudcroft, NM. It was still snowy up there and, though it was more out of the way than other places one could stay closer to White Sands (like Alamogordo), Cloudcroft had a lot of charm. It reminded me of Leadville, CO.
On the way home, we stayed one more night in Lubbock in a Home 2 Suites.
Day 1 Getting to NM
We drove from Frisco TX to Sweetwater TX. Hilariously, we found ourselves at the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup for our second year in a row. This is a great stopover for the carnival (unlimited rides for $35 per kid). We stayed for about two hours. This was our first year peeking in at the rattlesnake event itself, and honestly, it's kind of sad. There were a lot of protestors there and if we go again I might join them. Holden bought some sour skittles and we were ready to move on.
After Sweetwater, we drove to Carlsbad so we could hit the caverns in the a.m. We checked into our hotel, and then ventured out for dinner. We ended up going to three places before we found somewhere that was not on over an hour wait; ended up at El Charro. The food here was really good and there was a line out the door. There was a brewery right next door to our hotel that looked nice, but they were closed. We watched movies at the hotel and hung out on the patio.
Day 2 Carlsbad Caverns and Sitting Bull Falls
Carlsbasd Caverns is criminally underrated as National Parks go. This was my favorite attraction of the trip. Parking, reservations, entry, etc. all really well done. Once you select your reservation in advance, you can actually come in any time (same day).
Do the walk down if you can (and take the elevator up). It's very clean and well maintained. The temperature inside the cave is 56 degrees Cold natured people like me will want a light layer. The kids were comfortable in shorts and hoodies.
Carlsbad didn't take quite as much time as we thought, so we had time to kill after lunch. We saw signs to Sitting Bull Falls - 60 miles. and decided collectively what else do we have going on? We drove a crazy long way down into this attraction and were prepared to be underwhelmed, but it was absolutely georgeous. Great stop, worth the drive.
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| Sitting Bull Falls |
Day 3 White Sands
The winds were high the day we went to White Sands and we did get tired of sand in our eyes after a bit (wish we brought the ski goggles). Really nice attraction though. There is just one road to navigate the whole park, so it's easy and accessible. We stopped by the visitor center first of course to get our national park passport stamps. In the visitor center we watched a movie about the geology and history of the place (honestly, very good). We brought some sand toys and a sled and had a great time playing around in the dunes. We stayed about two hours here. Our favorite thing here was to get BURIED. This sand is pillowy soft and comes right off of you when you get up (unlike beach sand). Really cool experience.
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| We are disappearing... |
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Our first night in Cloudcroft we had dinner at Big Daddy's. The food was good, but they were tremendously understaffed.
Day 4 Guadelupe Mountains National Park and Cloudcroft
Guadelupe Mountains National Park is very large and there are a few different things you can do depending on the level of adventure you want and the time you have, from the NPS site:
- One Hour: Stop by the Pine Springs Visitor Center, walk through the museum, and walk the Pinery Nature Trail.
- Half Day: Consider hiking the Smith Spring Trail (2.3 mi. round-trip), the Devil's Hall Trail (4.3 mi. round-trip), or the McKittrick Canyon Trail (5-7 mi. round-trip).
- Full Day: Pick a day hike that can lead you into a riparian area or high up into the conifer forest. Common day hikes include the Guadalupe Peak Trail, the Bowl Trail, or the McKittrick Canyon Trail leading to the Grotto.
It was incredibly crowded when we went (Spring Break), so our plan completely fell apart. The Guadalupe Peak Trail (which will give you the accomplishment of climbing the highest peak in Texas) looked too intense for us; two of us could have handled it and two would have complained a lot. We planned to do the next best thing and hike Devil's Hall Trail. Unfortunately, parking for the two most popular hikes are in the same place and it was completely full when we arrived around 9:00 a.m. We drove to a different area of the park to hike the McKittrick Canyon trail. This hike was just ok (in my opinion, my husband liked it a little more).
After our visit to Guadalupe, we headed to the Bigfoot Encounter in Cloudcroft, NM. This unique destination offers a blend of attractions that make it a must-see. It's a gift shop, museum, shooting gallery, and interactive Bigfoot experience all rolled into one.
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For dinner we went to Cloudcroft Brewery for drinks and pizza. We loved this place! We got a flight to try a few different beers. We each found one we liked and we all really liked the pizza too.
Day 5 Cloudcroft, Roswell, and Driving Home
We started our day at Fernando's burritos and were not disappointed. The burritos here are huge and delicious (also, easy to split).
After that, we headed to Roswell. We weren't 100% sure about the Roswell stop; it was about 45 minutes out of the way - but for us it was worth it. The sheer commitment to the alien bit alone is impressive - even the streetlights have little alien faces. We started at the Roswell Vistor's Center and then stopped by the McDonalds for drinks (it's the only UFO-themed McDonalds in the world and is super cute). We went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center, the Roswell UFO Spacewalk, and Spaceport Roswell (which was a somewhat scary VR experience). All of this is very gimmicky but it worked for us! They also have a lot of great murals around town.
After Roswell, we drove to Lubbock where we spent our last night before driving home the next morning.
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