Psyche!

There was a lot of concern when Ryan and I started our trip that our itinerary would restrict what we were able to do in order to follow our full schedule of locations to see and activities to do. While we wish we could be completely spontaneous, our limited budget doesn’t allow for many deviations, since those tend to rack up our costs.

However, we were able to make one pretty big detour… we went to Colorado!

Yup! We decided to scrap our plans of camping in monument valley and instead camped here:

Ryan had never been to Mesa Verde, or at least that was the excuse, and I have to say I enjoyed being in my home state for a time anyway.

After that we had a second deviation from the plan (whoa, crazy!) where we went to Santa Fe for the night rather than Jemez Springs where we were going to camp. We really needed a pit stop after all the dusty canyons and muddy flood runoff, and so we found a deal online to spend the night in the city. The highlight of our night there was most certainly the Mexican dinner we had, which was at a hole-in-the-wall place clearly owned and run by one very industrious Hispanic family who couldn’t be kinder to us. Tacos, enchiladas, rice and beans was certainly a welcome change from pasta dinners like we normally eat, and Ryan and I practically rolled out of the place.

From there, we had one last stop before heading leaving New Mexico, a different sort of scenery from what we’re used to…

Carlsbad Caverns was a unique stop because it’s one of the few caves that I’ve been to (or remember being to), that allows you to explore the cave without a tour. Of course you have to stay on designated paths and behind railings, but nonetheless descending into the cave from the natural entrance deep into the dark, humid blackness felt sort of like we were discovering it for the first time.

Since we could walk about self-guided, the information plaques and lighting were also very well done, with features like the Lion’s Tails and Fairy Garden well marked and also aptly named. One of my favorites was the “Chandelier” pictured below, which was splendidly illuminated in such a way that made you feel like you were in an art museum as much as a cave.

Another favorite was Mirror Pool, mostly because the clever rangers had posted the sign written upside down and backwards, so that to read what the feature was, you had to look into… Mirror Pool! Haha! It took Ryan far too long to figure it out much to my amusement.

And the final awesome thing about the cave?

Yup! Flush toilets! All the way down there. Mind blown!

In total, from Mesa Verde to Carlsbad, our little deviations ended up being well worth the little extra cost, and we have even more places checked off our list. Now it’s off to the land of Southern hospitality and liquid gold… Texas here we come!