Epic Winter Trip to the South: Things to do in White Sand, Carlsbad Cavern, Guadalupe Mountains & Big Bend NPs
Your perfect winter vacation is planned for you by me with hikes, hot springs, wild horses, caves and more. Join me :)
This Christmas break, I was lucky to visit the four national parks in Texas and New Mexico. I will share what to do in each of these parks, how much time you should budget and where to stay. I spent quite some time making all these plans so I hope this blog post helps you plan better in a shorter time frame.
Before we get started make sure you have your National Park Pass with you.
Things to do in White Sands National Park in Winter
Time needed: A day or half day — depends on how much you like sand sledding
Activities: Hiking, Sand Sledding & Scenic Drive
Coming from the West, I started my journey from White Sands NP. This place is magical, it feels like it’s not from this world. If you do not have any time but maybe just 30 minutes. You should at least do the Dunes Drive which is a quick eight miles scenic drive.
For hikes you have multiple options. One of the most famous hikes is Alkali Flat Trail. It is 4.7 miles or if you are looking for something easier you can do Dune Life Nature Trail which is about a mile. I was there during winter and the weather was perfect but if you are attempting these hikes during summer, make sure you have enough water and wear sunglasses.
For me, sand sledding was the absolute best experience here. If you do not have a sled, you can buy a plastic snow-saucer at the park gift shop in the Visitor Center. The new ones are around 20$ and the used ones (based on availability) are around 15$. If you bring back the sled, they give you a White Sands magnet. In my experience, the best spots for sledding are around where the Alkali Flat Trail starts.
Things to do in Guadalupe Mountains NP in Winter
Time needed: Two days
Activities: Hiking
I stayed at the Pine Spring Campground. The campground is conveniently located at where the trail head is for the two hikes I did. It is only 20$ a day which is the most reasonable camping fee of this trip.
If you want to be at the highest peak of Texas and see beautiful views, definitely do Guadalupe Peak Texas Highpoint Trail. It is 8.4 mile and it is mostly gradual incline. When I was visiting (late December and early January), there was a high wind warning for the area. The hike was extremely windy, bring a windbreaker. If you want to see some beautiful rock formations, Devil’s Hall Trail is for you. It provides easy challenges on the way that makes the hike a lot more fun. It is a 3.6 miles quite crowded trail. There are other hikes you can do like McKittrick Canyon Trail being one of the other well loved hikes.
Things to do in Carlsbad Cavern NP in Winter
Time Needed: Half a day — if you only plan to do the self guided tour but during bat flight you probably need at least a full day.
Activities: Cave Exploration
This place is an underground wonderland. I just do not know how else to explain it. The natural entrance is a lot more majestic in real life. No picture taken will ever justify how beautiful this place is. If you are able to, take the Natural Entrance and walk and you can take the elevator back up.
Because of Covid, they stopped all the guided tours. Now visitors can do the self-guided Big Room tour which is the largest chamber in North America on their own. You still have to get an entry ticket at recreational.gov. However, the entry ticket you get online is not the real ticket, you have to go to the visitor center, show your online entry ticket and get your physical ticket. If you have an annual National Parks card, you do not have to pay extra, otherwise you pay around 15$ to enter.
Even though they are not offering guided tours, the Big Room from the Natural Entrance is an unbelievably beautiful experience. I spent a total of 4 hours inside and If I had more time, I would spend more. My next goal is to come back here to watch the Bat Flight. This happens from late May to October. Other times the bats are in Mexico. Another cool thing here is that there is a restaurant in the cave. Unfortunately, because of Covid, it was closed but I bet it would be a great experience to eat something there. More reasons to come back again :)
Things to do in Big Bend National Park in Winter
Time Needed: 3 or more days.
This park has everything at once. Wanna soak in hot springs? Sure. Do off-roading? Yep. Walk by the river, do some epic hikes? Sure Sure Sure. There is even an entry point to visit Mexico.
For hiking, Santa Elena Canyon, a short 1.4 miles trail by the Rio Grande river, was my favorite. The trail ends where the canyon meets the river. When there is sun, the reflection on the river makes the canyon look a lot deeper. It is unbelievably beautiful. Other two hikes I did in the park were Lost Mine Trail (4.8 mile) and The Window Trail (5.2 mile). Both of these hikes present you with incredible views. I also planned to do the Emory Peak but opted out for spending the day doing the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and soaked in the hot springs by the river watching Mexico. You only need to walk around 0.5 miles from the trail head to the hot springs. When I was there, I saw wild horses right at the trail head. You will also see some old buildings and some Native American pictographs on your way to the hot springs. So look around, you will definitely see some red pictographs.
While visiting Big Bend, I stayed in the city of Terlingua. There are multiple options in terms of where to stay. I spent one night in a stargazer at the Ocotillos Village and the other two I had to stay in a RV park to be able to charge my car overnight. If I did not have to charge my car, I would have loved to stay in the stargazer for the whole trip. The outdoor showers they had was great and it was the best shower experience of my life. I mean it may be because this was my first shower after visiting three national parks and multiple hikes, but it was perfect :) Once you figure out where you will be staying, you have to visit the town. There are really good food options and their general store is the best general store I have ever seen. The town vibe was also very unique.
One of my goals is to visit all the national parks in the states. While I was making plans for this trip, I was trying to get everything in, thinking that I would probably not visit these parks again. Coming from California they are not the most closest national parks BUT like a big BUT, I was already making plans for my next trip when I was there. I am totally going back. There is so much more to do.
I hope the information here was useful and made your planning a little easier. Thank you for reading. If you visit these parks, please let me know your favorite places. I definitely want to go back and do more in all these parks. I am looking forward to your suggestions and do more explorations.
I did this trip with a Tesla. If you are curious about how this big of a trip, door to door 4081 mile, was possible with EV, check my blog post here.
