When (Back) In Texas....

It's always great to get back in the Lonestar State!  As I usually do when I get to a new town for the first time, in this case Lamesa, TX, I checked Yelp for positive restaurant reviews and found a sort of "hole in the wall" spot called The Lost Texan Cafe.

The Lost Texan Cafe!

I've learned not to judge a book by it's cover regarding restaurants in a small town so I went in the Lost Texan and ordered the plate almost every one of the Yelp reviews recommended:

The Chicken Fried Steak Plate!

Served with fries, salad and toast, the Chicken Fried Steak might not have quite lived up to the extravagant Yelp reviews but it was very good.  The home made gravy was especially good'  I'd come back.

Thanks for reading!

Campground Review: Parks Ranch Whites City, NM

About 20 miles south of Carlsbad, NM on the east side of NM 62 is some Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land which means you can camp there for up to 14 days.  The parcel I decided to camp on is called Parks Ranch.  The reviews I had read of Parks Ranch mentioned some pretty rugged road getting into it so I planned on being flexible (and cautious) getting to it.  Turning off NM 62 immediately after the 10 mile marker you cross a cattle guard and drive onto a pretty rocky road. The road deteriorates about a mile from the highway and my gut told me I wasn't going to try pulling my six month old Mini any further in, at the same time a single campsite complete with fire ring appeared on my left so I decided to pull in and camp there.

The Mini's site about a mile short of the actual campground.

After setting up at the site I lucked into I decided to walk the remaining mile to the real Parks Ranch camp area and after about a quarter mile my "gut feeling" about bad road ahead was confirmed.

The road was so deeply rutted the Mini would have clearance problems.

When i got to Parks Ranch campground on foot the campsites there didn't appear to be any more desirable than the one I ended up with so I was happy to camp where I stopped.

One of the Parks Ranch campground sites backing up to a ravine.

Here's the Parks Ranch Data Sheet:

Hookups:                                             None (dry camping)                                                   

Fire ring:                                              Yes                                                                             

Water Access:                                     No                                                                  

Fresh Water:                                        No                                                      

Trash Service:                                      No (pack in, pack out)                                                           

Toilets:                                                 No                                                      

Showers:                                             No                                                                              

Dump station:                                      No                                                      

WiFi:                                                    No                                                      

Level sites:                                          Yes                                         

Laundry:                                              No                                                      

Store:                                                   No                                                                  

Pool:                                                    No                                          

Shade:                                                 No                                          

Verizon reception:                               4G, 4 bars                                           

Internet reception:                               4 bars of 5                                          

Cost:                                        Free for up to 14 days

I stayed at my campsite for four days, (the Astros' World Series games were to be played at night so I wanted to be somewhere with hookups for them) and got a real chance to test out the Mini's solar setup.  One thing that became apparent was that in cloudless New Mexico sunshine the 200 watt solar suitcase could easily overpower the Mini's new lithium ion battery pack which the manufacturer rates at 100 watt maximum charging input.  To limit the power coming in during peak sun I came up with the idea of hanging a towel over one of the suitcase's 100 watt solar panels, effectively reducing the power charging the battery to 100 watts.

Surprisingly, even a small amount of cover reduces the entire panel output.

My campsite had just a very minor bit of road noise from 62 during the day and none at night,  While I camped there no other campers were at Parks Ranch and it was great getting my daily walks in on the primitive roads.

A representative sample of the terrain around Parks Ranch.

I was really satisfied with my camping experience on the BLM land around Parks Ranch and would have stayed a few more days if not for the aforementioned must see Astros games.  One caution:  if you plan on making it all the way to the actual Parks Ranch campground make sure you have high ground clearance on both your vehicle and towed unit or risk damaging one or both from bottoming out!

Thanks for reading!

Hiking Guadalupe Mountains National Park

I have to be at my sister's place in Austin for Thanksgiving so I'm slowly camping my way back to central Texas.  Guadalupe Mountains National Park near Dell City, TX contains the highest peak in Texas, Guadalupe Peak at 8749 feet, and since it was along my route to Austin I stopped in to hike some of the park's trails.  The park encompasses 134 square miles so there's a ton of trails to choose from.  The Forest Service lets you stay in the hikers  parking area in your RV for $8 per night ($4 with your Golden Pass) so I took them up on it (no hookups).  Since I stayed in the RV spaces in the hiking parking lot and not at the park's actual campground I'll let the picture below be my review of the hikers parking lot:

A parking lot is pretty much a parking lot.

It still gets into the hi-80's even at altitude this time of year so I got off to an early start to beat the heat after I read the hiking info sign.

Good to know!

About 100 yards along the access trail you get a choice of the trails (and the degree of difficulty) that are available.

These are the hardest trails, there are some easier ones a little further in.

Not feeling up to an 8.4 mile round-trip I took the easier Frijole trail which initially skirted a giant rock field.

This thing ran for a lot longer than just this view.

The trails were always well marked when merging or diverging with other trails so it was easy to find your way.

The Tejas trail started climbing pretty quickly so I stayed on Frijole.

Here's a sample of what you hike on:

The Forest Service trims back cacti that impinge on the trails.

There is some non-desert vegetation the Frijole trail runs through:

Trees!

I drank all my water on the outward leg of the Frijole trail (the climate is really arid) so I headed back to the Mini for about a two hour session, but I'll definitely come back to Guadalupe Mountains National Park to try some of the other trails, maybe even a tough one!

There were some young guys geared up to climb this!

Thanks for reading!