After leaving Phoenix in late February, all four of us, Bonnie and Bubba, Wayne and Suzy (WaSu) headed south towards Tucson and Saguaro National Park. With only a half day there, we didn’t do much hiking, but took a short walk among the amazing variety of cactus to be found there:
In fact, we felt it was necessary to bring a little bit of the desert on the road with us!
Then it was on to the town of Benson, Arizona, which we used as a base to visit a couple places high on our lists: Tombstone and Kartchner Caverns.
Our next stop was Brantley Lake State Park, outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico. After a wee bit of difficulty getting into our assigned campsite, we relocated to another site that gave us an awesome view of the lake:
But of course the highlight was Carlsbad Caverns, a wanna-see for as long as I can remember. And it didn’t disappoint. If you’re interested, browse through this slideshow:
The fun continued as we moved on into Texas towards our main objective: Big Bend National Park. We didn’t realize that there is also a park known as Big Bend Ranch State Park adjacent to the national park. We spent our first day there– as usual, click on a pic to see a slide show (and my apologies for the abundance of cactus pics!):
After nearly two weeks together, sadly we had to say goodbye to Wayne and Suzy as they returned to Colorado, but as always, we had simply a fantastic time sharing these discoveries together and creating stories we’ll reminisce about for years to come. Here’s hoping they’ll join us on future jaunts as we continue our tour of America; here’s to great friends and great times, and more adventures down the road! Slainte!