The memorial, which is mostly comprised of a small interpretative visitor center, an art gallery, a large amphitheater, and a outdoor mural adorning one side of the building, is situated in a nice park with some other outdoor features, like ramadas, grills, and some other unidentified concrete structures. It’s actually built on land that was once Mexican territory, but had shifted to US hands as the Rio Grande River – the international boundary – shifted it’s course. And that’s really the point of the national memorial to begin with. The site, whose history and importance was greater than we expected, tells the story of how the US and Mexico surveyed, determined, challenged, challenged again, challenged yet again, and finally resolved, its common boundary along what is Texas. The story is too complicated to detail here, but it’s actually a fascinating tale – and one that has lots of implications for the southwest.

After touring the museum, getting our stamps and buying our requisite pin, we chatted for awhile with the Park Ranger, the lone one on duty at the site. Side note: we couldn’t check out the main gallery because there wasn’t a second ranger on duty to staff that building. We had a good chat about some parks, some annoyances of the park service, and the promise of better days ahead. We then took a few more shots outside and left, pleasantly surprised at the site that had until then been of one the banes of our quest. We headed onward to Fort Bowie National Historic Site, in southeastern Arizona, which was next in line – both on our trip agenda, and in the frustrating way we hadn’t yet visited it.

Just a few minutes into driving, however, we realized that Fort Bowie – which requires a hike just to get to the visitor center and ruins – would take a good three hours. Added to the three hours it would take to get there, plus time for lunch, and we would be hiking back to the car in the dark, not to mention arriving home pretty late and well after the playoff football games were over. We quickly decided to pass by Fort Bowie once again, instead tacking it onto a Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument trip we’re planning for the Presidents Day weekend.

And thus marked the last official stop of our National Parks of Texas roadtrip. We made our way back into Arizona listening to the early NFL game using streaming internet radio on my iPhone. A stop for lunch, and another stop for an afternoon snack at Eeegee’s in Marana, and yet another stop in Casa Grande for Kim to exchange some clothes, and…that 6.5 hour drive from El Paso took a bit longer. However, we finally made it home – and in enough time to watch most of the Colts-Chargers game – a little tired but happy to have completed yet another successful national park roadtrip.

Over the next few days, we’ll work to get the final trip summary and photos posted. Check out the trip summary page for updates.

When we arrived at Carlsbad Caverns, however, we learned that there were indeed some tours available – including a special “holiday” tour of King’s Palace by lantern. Even though it would add an extra day onto the trip, we pounced on the opportunity. We quickly made our way down the trail to the natural entrance – an incredibly impressive way to experience the cave. After the 750-foot descent, we wandered through the first half of the Big Room self-guided tour before grabbing a quick snack and making our way to the guided tour meeting place. This tour was a lot of fun – it’s a much different experience to explore a developed cave with only lantern-light. Kim had an especially good time.

After the ninety-minute tour was over, we headed back to finish the back end of the Big Room. With growling stomachs, we took the elevator up to the visitor center, had lunch in the adjoining restaurant, and got our passport stamp and pin.

We then hopped in the car and drove back west to McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park to get a passport stamp that we had missed the previous day. Unfortunately, the visitor contact station is closed, and, windy as ever, we decided to skip any short hikes in the area. It was late in the afternoon at this point, and it was obvious that we would not make it to Chamizal before they closed – and we certainly wouldn’t make it home tonight.

We ended up staying in a Ramada in El Paso, a decent suite room that comes complete with kitchenette and mini living room. After eating dinner out, we returned to the room to watch the conclusion of a bowl game and plot tomorrow’s schedule. The plan is to arrive at Chamizal National Memorial across town at 10am when they open, spend approximately an hour there, and then start heading home.

Unless we’re feeling anxious to get home early, we may stop at Fort Bowie National Historic Site, the only NPS Arizona site we haven’t done yet. We’re hoping to start working on our trip photos and summary page this weekend.

After sleeping in a bit and enjoying our nice hotel room, we loaded up and hit the road. A few hours of driving later, we found ourselves at Guadalupe Mountains National Park. A very windy Guadalupe Mountains – gusts were above 55mph with sustained winds of 15-20 mph. We did the visitor center and headed off to do a 4-mi hike to Devil’s Hall. Less than a mile into it, we turned around and headed back to the car – it was just so cold and windy that hiking wasn’t much fun. Instead of hiking up the canyon, which seemed to be funneling the wind down towards us at an incredible pace, we headed out to a couple of shorter trails on the foothills.

They were pretty short, but we still enjoyed them and have our eyes on returning – at a less windy future date – and doing some longer hikes up Guadalupe Mountain. The park, even though it’s on the road to Carlsbad and about an hour away, sees less than half of the visitation. That’s a shame, but probably due in part to its low profile and lack of easy, family-oriented trails and overlooks. Instead, most of its trails are long and its scenic drives of the 4WD variety. It also boasts the largest point in Texas, plus an iconic peak named El Capitan (though it still doesn’t hold a candle to the original). At 5700 feet, the park is relatively high and sees snow – it also contains the highest stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail Route.

After our short hikes, it was getting late and we headed on to our hotel in Carlsbad, a pretty crappy Super 8. Tomorrow we’ll be hitting Carlsbad Caverns National Park, doing the natural entrance hike and touring the Big Room. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get tickets to any guided tours, so we’ll have to save that part of Carlsbad until our next trip out here to see ASU play in the Sun Bowl. After Carlsbad, we’re heading back to El Paso to mark Chamizal National Memorial off our list. From there, it’s about a seven hour drive home. That puts us back home a day earlier than originally planned, but it’ll be nice to have some more time to decompress before the next year really gets started. Also, we’ve gone over budget on this trip due to our hotel stays after we ditched our camping plans because I was sick, so it’ll be nice to save some cash.

I’m not sure if we’ll get a chance to post an update about tomorrow’s events – we’ll return home pretty late at night – but we’ll get a full trip summary up soon on the trips page. Thanks for following along, and Happy New Year.