Big Bend National Park, TX to Albuquerque, NM

Boqullias Canyon

From Marathon there is an 80 mile majestic drive through Bigs Bend’s 3000 acres of dessert and mountains. We decided to stay for 4 nights in total, 2 nights in Rio Grande and 2 nights in Chisos Basin. The camp area in Rio Grande was clean, well kept and peaceful and lots of trails nearby. There are quite a few smaller trails around here up to about 3 miles, we did not fancy anything longer as the temperature on average 116OF by 3pm. Lots. wildlife spotting around Rio Grande including Road Runners, Rattlesnakes, tarantulas, white tailed deer, jackalopes, Javelinas and all sorts of different birds. Hands down my favourite were the road runners, coolest birds ever as they run real fast, at baby rattlesnakes and are more than happy running by your feet in camp. Black bears and mountain lions in Chisos basin can also be seen, but we missed them. Not that you want to see a mountain lion because chances are if you see one its known you have been there for a while and is stalking you, not good.

Baby Jackalope

I ❤ road runners

As there is no light pollution in Big Bend Park and it is still light from the moon outside until about 4am, if you can wake up and go and look at the stars, I never realised there were so many. The store has things you need, the only showers in the whole of big bend and laundry facilities. A 30 mile drive west leads you into the Chisos basin which is definitely the most popular area to stay, arrive a bit earlier or you will find it hard to find a spot with shade (you will definitely need shade). Again there are loads of trails ranging from 1-10 miles. My favourite one was the Window Trail at the sunset, time is right and the sunset. A couple we met on their way back said that they saw a mama bear with her two cubs on the path ahead, but we missed them. A good spot to watch the sunset it either on the patio of the lodge (where you can charge up and use wifi) or walk the 0.4 mile to the window overlook. The last day we did the 100ish mile scenic drive to the castilo canyon stopping along the various trails and overlooks along the way. In the canyon is beautiful and as the river was low weeven walked across to Mexico. It does get awfully hot into the sheltered canyon and its a fairly steep walk up/down in the heat so take plenty of water, by 12pm it was too hot and we had to get back to the car fairly quickly to find shade, an older gentlemen and his daughter were behind us and he was in real trouble coming back but made it.

Castillo Canyon

The drive out of Big Bend north on the 118, the first town you come across is Study Butte where you can get petrol as its super expensive in Big Bend. A short distance after is the turning for Terlingua ghost town. The town’s shop opens at 10am and you can get a map for a self guided walking tour. The town was abandoned by miners and in the 70s a few people started to move back in. There are some interesting characters around, we met Dr Doug who gave us loads of info about the history and was the ‘chamber of commerce’ for the town, he has lived in Terlingua for 40 years. The town hosts an eannual chilli event in November but unfortunately it’s May so we were a bit early.

Dr Doug

Terlingua Ghost Town

We pushed on north to Alpine, there are a few cool murals, an old school cinema and Martha’s Raspa cafe where you can get a snow cone to beat the heat.

Alpine Mural

Marfa has a great art scene and a young vibe about the place for a small dessert town. Minimalist artist Donald Judd moved to Marfa in the 1970s and it has carried on being arty ever sinse. We stayed in a kitschy campground alled El Cosmica, you can rent tents, retro trailers, wigwams or just pay to put up your tent.there are outdoor showers/toilets and kitchen. The shower took a bit of getting used to as it had lots of gaps where anyone could see you but was actually liberating and refreshing. Also in the camp was a large photography workshop who made John and I pose for them and we met a fellow traveller called Mark who we frequently the local dive bar with to enjoy $1 draft beers and free pool…. $1 for a BEER!

El Cosmico

Donald Judd

 Feeling a bit worse for wear in the morning we stopped at Marfa’s Burrito  Walking in you realise that you are walking into a room in her house and that your order is limited to how much Spanish you speak. Luckily John can speak Spanish so were able to order a chorizo and egg and a hot chilli burritos, both kick ass. Her green salsa is incredible, probably the best I have ever had but it super hot so eat with caution.

Marfa Burritos

The next day a short 25 mile drive north to Fort Davis. We decided to camp in town rather than the park this time as it had some cool looking buildings. The camped in the middle of town $12 for the evening. At the local salon you can get a soda from the old fashioned soda stream but we opted for a huge Sunday. Visit Fort Davis, it’s an interesting walking tour of the old buildings, I especially liked learning about the old hospital treatments and buffalo soldiers. I found out that buffalo soldiers got their name as from native americans who saw the black soldiers afro hair and that is matched the tufted of hair on top of a buffalos head. The Fort Davis is sate park is 3 miles from the town and after 5pm the office is shut so could not pay the $6 entrance fee. There is 9 miles of trails, which we didn’t have time to do but we did have time to drive up the scenic road and watch the sunset. Also on top of the hill you can collect gems (which I plan to make jewellery from) That Are just lying n the floor amongst the rocks. From here we drove to the McDonald Obseravtory for the Friday night ‘star party’. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy by we were able to look through the telescopes at Saturn, the moon and some other stars. The staff were informative and very interesting. It was a full moon that evening so on top of being cloudy could not do the constellation tour, on the plus side the moon was the biggest I have ever seen.

Buffalo Soldiers, Fort Davis

Heading north of Fort Davis about 35 miles leads you to Balmorea Springs. Definitely worth a stop for a dip in the refreshingly clear spring water, which has 35,000 gallos of water naturally pumped through it every day. Expect queues s to get in on the weekend so get in early. From here we drove through the town which was pretty but did not stop. There was not much to look at apart from dirt devils that look like mini tornados sweeping across the dessert.

We drove through El Paso into New Mexico and continued to Leasburg state park. The camping facilities there are great and only cost $10 for the evening. Forgetting to set our alarm to a mountain time we woke up and started to have breakfast and pack down our tent at 5:45am, the sun was beaming down so we had no idea it was so early whoops. Instead of driving up the I25 we detoured and took the 17 to the white sands dunes about 40 miles away. These were beautiful and fun to run up and down. We looped up around and met the i25. There is literally nothing of note apart from the location of the USA’s first atomic bomb detonation and their missile testing range (which I think is a cover for Area 51). New Mexico is super religious so everything is closed on Sundays apart from big corporations. 3 hours of driving later we reached Albuquerque.

San Antonio to Big Bend National Park

A couple we stayed with in Austin told us San Antonio was a ghost town, so pleasantly surprised when we got there that this was not the case. The Alamo was our first stop, it’s free and a nice place to learn a bit of Texas’ history and walk around its gardens. A short walk down the street leads you to the river walk. It is a very pretty stroll, lots of places to eat/drink and you can get river rides if you wish. From there we walked over to the cathedral and up to the Mexican Market. The Mexican market was pretty touristy so did not stay there long. We found a great Goodwill around there. I found an making fringed leather jacket but it was one size too big so reluctantly walked away from it.

A quick walk back to the River walk towards John Besh’s restaurant ‘Luke’ for the 3-6pm happy hour, half price drinks which end up $4-5 a glass for wine, $1.5-3 cans/draft, charbroiled oysters were $1 each, 50 cent raw oysters, slider of the day $3 and 50 cent empanadas. Needless to say we ate loads and drank too much wine. I loved the decor, our waitress was great and the air-con was a god send as it was 38oc. A quick visit to the Japanese Tea Gardens for a very pretty after dinner stroll, which helped to sober up (also free).

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We spent the evening in a motel just outside of town as it was a lot cheaper and had a pool. In the morning we made a quick pit stop in an unbelievably amazing Taco Shop for their Sat/Sun brunch taco,then heading over to Saks 5th Avenue to see the world’s largest pair of boots.

There are a number of small towns you drive through along the 90 before Big Bend National Park. Castroville, Dulany, Hondo, Sabinal, Knippa, Uvalde, Brackvetville and then Del Rio. We only stopped at Sabinal, as it looked quite cool with a Saloon, old hotel and had a laundromat as we were desperate to do washing. Del Rio is a city but did not stop as it has quite a lot of drug traffic through it. I advise to fill up on petrol as this point as there are not many petrol pumps for a while. Driving from Del Rio to Seminole national park, there is a big beautiful blue lake surrounded canyons near Comstock, definitely worth to stop and take a photo (I forgot to silly me).

6 miles outside of Comstock brings you to Seminole National park. We camped here for the evening as it only cost $8 and had drinking water/hot showers. The camp had great views with loads of wildlife including deer, lizards, snakes and birds, all easy to spot right from your tent. The office closes at 4:45 so there is an honestly box to pay. You are not supposed to go on trails without guides but it was almost sunset, no one was around so we walked a short walk down the the canyon. We sat there for a while enjoying the sunset and watching the huge golden eagles riding the wind up and across the canyon. There are cave paintings you can see but you have to wait until the guided tour at 10am but we planned to be gone by then. We had the worst ever nights sleep due to the high wind which was shaking our tent like crazy, we were packed and ready to leave by 7:30am.

Seminole National Park, TX

The towns past here are tiny, and I mean tiny but highway 90 is beautiful and best of all almost empty all the way to Marathon. Langtry is the first town you hit and has the Judge Roy Bean museum, definitely worth a visit. The crime was so bad and the nearest law was 100 miles away around 1880 that we was appointed judge to punish people. He basically just did whatever he wanted, even holding a banned heavyweight boxing match just over the Mexican border therefore out smarting the state troops sent to stop it, which I thought was quite cool, especially as he made a lot of money out of it. From here there is a beautiful drive through dessert mountains, past Dryden (population 9 although I was pretty sure it was a ghost town), the next is Sanderson which even has a motel! It also has 3 petrol stations and thank god as we only had one bar left, it was a Sunday morning and the next town was 41 miles away. Finally you hit Marathon, the last town before Rio Grande. We treated ourselves to a Mexican coconut flavoured ice cream from the local shop (amazing) and used the free wifi quickly at the only local grocery in town. Driving back on yourself about a mile you turn south onto the beautiful scenic down the 385 towards Big Bend Park.

Thrifty Eats and Drinks in New Orleans

New Orleans is definitely the place where you can continuously eat and drink all day long without feeling those annoying guilty pangs. Since prohibition ended there has never been a last orders bell rang, which means you could potentially stay in the bar for a whole weekend if you wanted to. Lots of places have happy hours for both food and drink. Higher end eating is not out of the question as a lot of places have a $20.13 pre-fix lunch menu. Personally I love per-fix menus as it allows me to try things that i would not necessarily go for. Also if its crawfish season, eat as much as you can and keep an eye out as a lot of bars offer free crawfish (crayfish in England) around 4-6pm with your drinks. Here is my guide for happy eating and drinking New Orleans style:

Atchafalaya,
I was told this is one of the best restaurants in New Orleans and was not disappointed. We had the $20.13 per fix lunch special menu. The food was amazing, a highlight was the crab ravioli. With lunch there is a choice of 3 wines rotated daily for $5 a glass, so if course I had two.

Commanders Palace
There are lots of options for lunch here but I did not go for the pre-fix menu. I went the turtle soup for starters (mean turtles from the swamp), shrimp and grits entrée and pecan pie. The price was similar to the per fix menu and it turned out to be the best decisions ever! What is Unbelievably amazing about this menu is the 25 cent martinis, they are super strong and you can have any flavour of your choosing. After the large portions of food and 3 martinis we left well and truly satisfied, so satisfied we went home for a nap and woke up that evening, whoops.

WW2 Museum, American Sector Bar and Grill
This is a John Besh restaurant, John Besh is a local food hero. His restaurants having fantastic happy hours. From 3-6pm there $2.50 drafts $4 well drinks and wine (well drinks are spirits and a mixer) and then 75 cent snacks, which include Korean duck wings, puller pork sliders and meat pies. Needless today they recognised our faces after a while.

August
Another John Besh but much higher end. I loved this restaurant. Again we opted for the $20.13 lunch menu, otherwise it’s pretty pricey. The food and staff were great and I loved the mousse served in egg shell amuse-bouche (as seen in photo) and to top it off we even received an after dessert yogurt coated lolly pop thing yum yum yum.

Antoine’s
This restaurant has been in the same family for 5 generations. We enjoyed the $20.13 pre-fix menu and 25cent martinis. The only negative I had is that you had to have the flavour off the day and they were not very strong. After lunch you our offered a tour of the building which was very enjoyable and I would recommend doing.

Po-Boys
Po-Boys are essentially sandwiches on soft French style bread. The first one I had was shrimp, I thought it was pretty sickly which I guess had something to do with the deep-fried mayonnaise shrimp, I will never eat deep fried shrimp again. I much prefer beef or pastrami Po-boys. What is great is that for around $8 it’s enough to feed 2 people. Our favourite two spots were Verti Marte,1201 Royal St and Frenchman Grocery and Deli, 650 Frenchman St. Both and grocery shops USO you can have a beer while you wait and then go and enjoy you food by the shop or in a park near by with a nice cold beer.

Muffalettas
An Italian style sandwich, with olive frochata bread, olive oil veg able mix and fresh sliced italian meats. Personally I loved this sandwich as it was fresh tasting with the olive oil mix. A whole Muffalate will set you back around $14, however this is easily enough for two. The best places to have one are both in the French Quarter, either sit in at Napoleon House or go to it’s creator Central Grocery and sit at the deli counter or take it out. We ended up ordering a half to share at Central Grocery and were full.

Beignets
Beignets are a very popular dessert in New Orleans. I liked them but thought they kind of tasted like a chewy square donut. The most popular place to eat them is Cafe Du Monde and there is always a que so we ordered them at the take out counter. A couple of days later when it was raining we went to Cafe Beignet on Royal street for coffee and beignets. Personally I preferred it there as I got to sit down and enjoy my afternoon delights without feeling rushed and it was not too busy, also there was a cat asleep on the chair on the table next to us and I LOVE cats.

The Sazerac @ The Sazerac Bar

When in New Orleans you must have a Sazerac cocktail at the Sazerac bar in the Roosevelt hotel. The Sazerac is actually the official cocktail of New Orleans. It is $13 for the cocktail itself but it is worth it. Also a Sazerac never a tastes as good as it does at that bar and that’s a fact. The bar itself Art Deco and felt quite romantic and sophisticated even though we were sat at the bar.

Daiquiris
If you have a car go to the New Orleans Original Daiquiris as every Monday and Wednesday its $5 for a large. Otherwise there are loads dotted around town so get one anyway. I found them perfect in the hot weather to cool down, although I had to ban myself from them for a while as they do contain a lot of sugar.

New Orleans to San Antonio

Driving from New Orleans heading west, we opted for the US90 rather than the I10 towards Lafayette as the I10 is pretty soulless. Lots of small towns along the way but not a lot to stop for apart from one, Avery Island which was for the Tabasco Factory. Avery Island is beautiful so it was a nice drive in. The Tabasco factory tour was made up of a 10-15min video explaining the history and then a short walk through the bottling factory. It was not the most amazing tour but they did give us 4 sample bottles each, which was great. The Tabasco country store also has a lot of things you can buy, I recommended the peppered jelly as its perfect with cheese. Also on Avery Island there is a bird sanctuary, we chose not to go in as they wanted to charge $8 per person, which we did not think was worth it so headed up another 30 miles or so to Lafayette.

Lafayette – I hate to say but was pretty disappointed with Lafayette, especially after hearing great things about it. We arrived Monday evening, the streets were empty and everything closed apart from a couple of restaurants and bars but after 6 weeks on constant drinking in New Orleans it did not seem appealing. We drove in on Tuesday morning hoping things would be open but the streets were still empty and most things closed (I wish we had gone on the weekend and it may have been better). There was however 4-5 large muriels on the side of buildings to see. Close to the town at the cathedral is a 500 year old oak tree, which is definitely worth seeing how impressive it is.

An hours drive west on the I10 towards Sam Houston State Park just outside of Lake Charles, stopping in the Walmart near the park for supplies and beer. The park has great camping facilities, hot showers, clean toilets, BBQ/fire pits, clean and lots of trails for walking or running. It also has a boat jetty but unfortunately I don’t have a boat. There are lots of alligators in the area so definitely no swimming! In the evening we were visited by some cute looking raccoons trying to look for food, luckily we always throw ours in the bins as not to attract bears/raccoons etc which can destroy things and get vicious when it involves food.

In the morning we headed west coming off onto the 14/27 to do the Creole Nature trail. There are loads of alligators, beavers and birds etc but driving down we only saw birds. In fact the best thing i saw were some very cool looking mushrooms. There was not much to stop at, so we pretty much drove straight down to the Gulf Coast.

The gulf coast had some cute little holiday homes but not much else. There are 5 beaches to stop at on the drive west, all pretty similar, long stretches of beach and very windy. On the third beach Little Florida there is a bird sanctuary area, although we did not see many birds but there is a small private grassy car park which was quiet and wind free, a perfect place to have a picnic lunch. All along the coast a few miles out to sea you can see all the oil rigs, the beaches were littered with dead fish and bottle nosed dolphins, which were spray painted orange. I looked it up and it meant that the dolphins had been counted by the Institute of Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, but then left there to rot for days and days until the beach clean up team take them away. All of these dead dolphins and fish were really quite upsetting and I later found out that this was an affect from the BP oil spill in 2010, which is still happening today and they are trying to cover it up. This runs all along the gulf coast for hundreds of miles. In Alabama there are endangered sea turtles washed up, just in case dolphins and fish were not enough. More can be read here DO NOT LOOK AT THE BELOW PHOTOS IF YOU ARE DISTRESSED BY DEAD FISH/DOLPHINS.

The Sat Nav told us it was 5 hours to San Antonio so we decided to drive the I10 all the way there that same day, which is worth doing as there is nothing on the I10 unless you want to go to Houston but we did not.