We had an opportunity to roadtrip back to Los Angeles from Dallas, TX during the week of Thanksgiving so we used it to check off as many national parks as we could on our way back!
Squeezing Six Parks into Six Days was aggressive, but we felt like were able to sufficiently explore each of them enough to officially check them off our list and avoid the dreaded, “Well, we’ve got to come back to see the rest,” which we encountered with our first trips to Zion and Yosemite.
We’ve also developed some strong driving stamina from roadtrips over the years and pulled a few long days on the road to pull this off, so “your mileage may vary” in the literal sense, but it was absolutely worth it to maximize the time we had!
The Itinerary:
When initially mapping out the trip, we had built a different itinerary that had us visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park on Thanksgiving Day, but quickly realized they would be closed for the holiday (which is unusual for many National Parks). Upon shuffling around the schedule, we discovered they’re only open from 8am to 2:15pm.
This is the first time we’ve encountered those kind of limited hours for a national park (other than weird COVID-related closures and timed entry restrictions), but it’s a very different kind of park.
That meant that instead of logically visiting Big Bend first, since we were already in TX, we rerouted to Carlsbad Caverns and pushed Big Bend later in the trip. If we were to do the trip again, we’d definitely go for Big Bend first, since we had to repeat a portion of the route, adding overall driving time and mileage.
Now, without further ado…
#1: Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Once we mapped out our new-and-improved route, we booked the required tickets on Recreation.gov for timed entry into Carlsbad Caverns.
Once you arrive at the visitor center, you’ll check in with a ranger that hands you a receipt for cave entry, which is checked again before you’re allowed to descend into the caverns.
We nabbed the first open slot at 8:30-9:30am (you’re allowed to enter at any point inside that time slot), and hiked down to the Natural Entrance to the Big Room.
It’s a 1.25 steep downhill hike down, which we’d highly recommend. You can opt to skip it and take the elevator down. If you wanted to squeeze a workout in, you can hike in and out for some steep elevation gain, but we went for the elevator due to timing.
Carlsbad Caverns is one of the few National Parks that’s almost entirely underground, and is incredibly unique. Legend says that a local teenager Jim White saw an enormous swarm of bats explode into the night sky one evening in the late 1800s — he sought out to find where they were coming from, and discovered the opening leading down into the main caverns:
It was fantastic experiencing the huge limestone chamber and stalactites, while touring at your own pace. It took us about three hours to do the whole self-walking tour, including the hike in, and we took our time.
The Big Room Trail is about 1.25 miles long by itself, but is relatively flat and showcases spectacular cave formations and views. There’s an old rope ladder used by explorers in the 1900s still in the caves, which is just insane to imagine being used.
With the right timing, there’s also the opportunity to take part in the Bat Flight Program or sign up for any of the ranger-guided tours, which we would’ve loved to do if timing had worked out.
#2: Guadalupe Mountains National Park
After spending the morning at Carlsbad Caverns, we made a quick sandwich and drove a quick thirty minutes over to Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Ball-parking an early winter sunset of approximately 5pm, we figured we had roughly four hours of daylight left.
Technically, Guadalupe Mountains National Park is in the Mountain Time Zone but our phones kept switching between Central Time and Mountain Time, depending on what portion of the park and which cell tower we were closer to.
Fortunately, to straighten out some of the confusion, the park rangers have a digital clock mounted to the information board explaining the situation — we found the best way to track the time was to manually add El Paso, TX to our world clock.
We considered stopping at McKittrick Canyon for some fall colors, but ultimately decided to hike Devil’s Hall, a 3.8 mile round-trip hike departing from the Pine Springs Trailhead. Most of the trail is a rocky wash that leads to a natural rock staircase leading to a “hallway” formed by steep canyon walls.
This was like, a really good state park at best.
Wes
It took us less than two hours to get back to the parking lot, which gave us enough time to watch the sunset light hit Guadalupe Peak and start heading towards Big Bend.
If we had more time, we would’ve loved to actually hike Guadalupe Peak, the park’s most prominent hike; a 8.5 mile trek with 3,000 feet in elevation gain.
Prada Marfa
Aquick pitstop to stretch the legs! On our way to Alpine, TX to rest for the evening, we stopped at Prada Marfa and snapped some pictures at magic hour.
It’s pretty cool to see an art installation right off the highway in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert — definitely worth stopping if you’re driving past, but we wouldn’t say it’s worth going out of your way to squeeze it in unless you’re an influencer type. We got to bed early to prepare for Big Bend National Park.
The Prada Marfa art installation, just outside of Marfa, TX.#3: Big Bend National Park
We woke up before sunrise and headed immediately into the park, making a quick stop at the Panther Junction Visitor Center to chat with a ranger to get his recommendations to make the most of the day.
His recommendations lined up with our research (always a win)!
We started off with the Lost Mine Trail, a popular 4.8 mile round trip hike which took us just under two hours. There were beautiful views along the way that ended at a ridge with views of Pine Canyon and the Sierra del Carmen in Mexico. We nabbed a parking spot without any issues, but when we returned, people were waiting and fighting for openings. Definitely worth getting here early, if you can.
Pine Canyon in Big Bend National Park with the Mexican Sierra del Carmen visible in the distance.We headed over to the Chisos Basin Visitor Center parking lot to eat our packed lunch and sauntered down to Window View, a quick .3 mile trail from the Visitor Center. It’s definitely a spot that’s best at sunset, but it didn’t make enough sense for us to turn around later in the day to revisit.
We left for the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to get to the Santa Elena Canyon Trail. Along the way we stopped at the Sotol Vista Overlook, the Mule Ears Trail for some fun pictures, and walked out to Tuff Canyon to check out the dry wash.
When we arrived, we were amazed at how close we were to Mexico, with just the Rio Grande River dividing us.
We made a quick stop at the Santa Elena Canyon Overlook to get a great view of how the waters below have carved the Canyon (check out the “featured” picture at the top of this post).
It’s fascinating how the current eats away at the hard limestone, cutting it deeper.
We then pulled up to the beginning of the Santa Elena Canyon Trail, and after a short walk, Wes stepped into the water to straddle the US/Mexico border!
We snapped some pictures and started the trail to be able to catch the warm sun hitting off the rear canyon walls.
Knowing we still had plenty of hiking ahead of us, I hesitated to get my boots and socks wet, but props to the dad holding his small kid in his arms who recommended that Wes should do the same.
With Big Bend National Park being so big, we easily could have spent another two days there to also explore the East side of the park, but had to embrace our limitations and keep moving on.
We purposely planned to take a different route out to see more of the park, which would also take us through the ghost town of Terlingua.
To my surprise, it was packed with tourists and the Starlight Restaurant, which we initially planned to go to, had a four hour wait!
We ended up grabbing Mexican food at Taqueria el Milagro down the road, which worked out just as well.
#4: White Sands National Park
Since we had to rearrange Carlsbad Caverns to be our first visit, we repeated the same route in and out to Big Bend, meaning that Thanksgiving was a long day of driving as we headed up to White Sands National Park.
We ended up timing things perfectly, as the rain had stopped minutes before we arrived and allowed us to snap many photos of the beautiful sand dunes. Sleds and wax are available to buy or rent at the visitor center if you want to go sledding!
Since it was a holiday, we wanted to make sure we’d be able to enjoy some type of dinner that wasn’t fast food. We headed towards our next stop in Tucson, Arizona in hopes of finding something that was open, and managed to locate a great Chinese restaurant and rest up for the next day at Saguaro National Park.
#5: Saguaro National Park
We started the day at the Gould Mine Trail along the King Canyon Trail, a 2.6 mile loop to preview some of the big cacti. It briefly climbs up a ravine to the site of a long-disused copper mine. We then headed towards Saguaro (suh-wah-row — none of that hard “g” stuff) National Park and spent the afternoon on the West side of the park.
We drove the Bajada Loop Drive and stopped for the Valley View Overlook Trail, an easy and popular 0.8 mile trail that ends in a viewpoint over a valley of cacti, mountains, desert, and saguaro forests. We also stopped at the Signal Hill Petroglyphs to see the dozens of drawings etched into the rock from the Hohokam period.
It definitely gets hot, so be sure to bring a hat, water and sunscreen! After exploring all morning, we stopped off at The Parish for a late barbecue lunch and began the drive up towards Holbrook, AZ for Petrified Forest National Park the next day.
We drove along the gorgeous Salt River Canyon, which felt almost like a mini Grand Canyon. There were so many beautiful overlooks along the 2,000+-foot drop in elevation down steep and twisting roads. We stopped at the Salt River Canyon Viewpoint for amazing views of the gorge, but we were losing daylight quickly and took in what we could before continuing on our way.
#6: Petrified Forest National Park
We entered the park via the Rainbow Forest Museum entrance and stopped at the visitor center to learn more — a park ranger gave us an incredibly helpful map and marked off their “must-stop” places. This park is one of the best places in the world to see the fossil record from the Late Triassic Period. Petrified wood is primarily formed from trees that have been knocked down, and then buried by layers of sediment. The logs soak up groundwater and silica from volcanic ash, which eventually crystallize into quartz, creating some amazing colors and rock formations! Science!
We drove the full 28 miles one way to the other side of the park (which really feels like how the park is designed to be experienced), and made plenty of stops along the way. We started by walking the quick Giant Logs Trail behind the first visitors center, a 0.4 mile loop with some of the largest petrified logs in the park.
We did the Crystal Forest trail, a scant 0.75 mile loop paved walk to see tons of beautiful logs up close, the sun glinting off colorful crystals. We quickly stopped at the Jasper Forest to take in a vista point and the Agate Bridge, a partially exposed petrified log spanning a gully, making a bridge.
One of our favorites was the Blue Mesa, which was a steep 1-mile trail, walking down into blue, purple, gray, and peach banded badlands with colorful petrified wood. We swung by Newspaper Rock quickly to see some of the 650+ petroglyphs, and a really cool summer solstice marker where prehistoric peoples used solar calendars to plan their lives around the changing seasons.
Finally, we stopped at Pintado Point for vast views of the red, painted desert before arriving at the visitor’s center at the end of the park and crossed this one off our list!
Meow Wolf: Omegamart
After a quick lunch at the shop next to the Painted Desert Visitor Center, we started our drive to Las Vegas, NV to check out Meow Wolf, an amazing, interactive, and immersive art installation.
We visited Meow Wolf’s The House of Eternal Return on our road-trip from Boston to Los Angeles back in 2018, and since then they’ve opened Omega Mart, an interactive supermarket that pulls you into surreal worlds and unexpected adventures.
You can sprint through (metaphorically, not literally — I’m sure an employee would stop you) the entire space in about half an hour, but we highly recommend doing the Employee Training Experience, which guides you through a narrative story as you navigate the space and unlock details in an ongoing mystery, as well as actually change and impact the space around you and other guests.
It’s worth checking out the story for yourself, and we’ll definitely be checking out their new experience that just opened in Denver!
Technically, we snuck in a 7th day to do Meow Wolf and drive back to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, but that wraps up our road trip!
We jammed a lot in one week, but we were thrilled to be able to experience so many parks along the way and scratch that road-trip itch.
