We're back from the trip. We ended up driving Odessa to Pecos to Orla to GUMO Pine Springs. Arrived at Pine Springs around 3PM. We got one of the walk-in sites, #6, I think, and by the time we got the tent set up the ranger came around and said the CG was full.
We then took a day hike up the GP trail. But the combination of having a cold, going from sea level to 5000 ft in one day, and waking up that morning at 3:30 to catch a plane in Philly, knocked me out after about 3/4 mile. I found a shady spot to sit down and my son went onwards and upwards for another hour. That night turned out to be the warmest/mildest of the week.
Next morning we got up with the sun and headed north to Carlsbad Caverns. We spent the week visiting White Sands, the Very Large Array, Chiracahua NM, Gila Cliff Dwellings, etc. The last night of camping we aimed for Davis Mountains SP, but the CG was full when we got there. We cruised the town looking for a room, but the few places either looked very expensive or very bad. I told my son, that I was sure the CG's at Big Bend would be full, but I knew of a place just outside the park that had a big field for tent campers (or so I had heard). So even though he already had driven about 300 miles from near T or C, NM, we went for another 100 miles down to Stillwell's. For 10 bucks, the old man pointed us out into the flat desert and we found a nice spot for our tent. It even had a big wooden cable spool for a table! But no seats.
Being a glutton for more driving, we entered the park and did the Dagger Flat drive and then we cooked our dinner and watched the sun go down at the the Persimmon Gap picnic area.
The next day we did the Lost Mine trail, had lunch at the lodge and then hiked into Santa Elena canyon for some meditation.
I then drove non-stop from Castolon to Odessa. We had a reservation at the Motel 6 there. What a dive! Bags of trash outside several of the rooms, an old cup of soda on the windowsill, only one towel in the bathroom, broken knob on the A/C (I had to borrow a wrench from the office to turn it on.) Flew home the next morning.
