Southwest National Parks

I was home for a grand total of 12 hours before leaving for spring break!

Visited 7 national parks in 9 days over spring break:


White Sands: basically a huge playground!

Carlsbad Caverns: stunning! (Make sure to reserve a time slot for self guided tour - natural entrance)

Guadalupe Mountains: great for hiking and summiting the highest peak in Texas

Big Bend: I loved this place way more than I thought I would! We enjoyed the hot springs and swimming in the Rio Grande (while watching ppl buy tamales from a grass shack across the border by passing them over the river) and we enjoyed a bit of hiking/viewpoints throughout the park. The weather was absolutely perfect when we were there and we camped near Santa Elena canyon which was beautiful

Great Sand Dunes: very snowy and cold when we were there but fun to climb the dunes

Black Canyon of the Gunnison: very snowy so couldn’t access most of the park but did some snowy hiking around the visitor center and enjoyed stunning views of the canyon

Mesa Verde: also very cold but we enjoyed seeing all of the houses and learning about the history of the civilizations there






















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