Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:14:19 -0500
Reply-To: mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: Places in the SW to camp in March
In-Reply-To: <1C3ACE75-AE6A-4751-857E-BB00A546C561@mail.ucsd.edu>
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Well, Mark, I didn't suggest a trip to East Texas, which is a part of the SE U.S.
I didn't suggest a trip to central, north or NW Texas, which are Texas.
I didn't suggest a trip to California, which is California.
I left it to others to suggest locations in New Mexico and Arizona.
But anyone who doesn't include the Trans Pecos region of Texas as part of the SW has little or no experience in the SW.
Desert, more cactus species than any other state, javelina (collared peccary to non-Texans), Desert Bighorns, Basin and Range mountains, salt flats, pinon, yucca forests, homeland of Apaches, hot springs, cold springs, adobe construction. More Hispanic surnames than Anglo ones. I don't know what could be more SW than this region.
For the remoteness that Mr. Squirrel requested -- it is here in spades. Best bet for that for a VW camper is going to be Big Bend Ranch State Park, or Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, or Big Bend National Park if you don't mind driving 20 miles or more on back country roads. But other places are great, too. I get the impression he prefers to avoid developed campgrounds of the sort that RV types frequent.
By the way, Mr. Squirrel, if you are listening, best bet for solitude in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in a vehicle would be Dog Canyon, which is accessed from Carlsbad, New Mexico via Queen, New Mexico, but is in Texas (barely). There are remote camps in the Organ Mountains west of there in New Mexico also, and a big swath of New Mexico's portion of the Guadalupes is national forest with open camping if you can get to it with your vehicle. That is the Lincoln National Forest.
McKittrick Canyon in Texas is open for day use only, but mixes maple and SW White Pine with Agave and Madrone. Beautiful little canyon with a delightful spring fed creek. Reputed to be one of only two creeks in Texas that had native trout when Europeans arrived. Both populations of Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout, if they existed, are extirpated now, and have been replaced with introduced Rainbow Trout, the cockroach of the fish world these days.
I keep hearing rumors of locations on Delaware Creek (or River as it appears on some maps, it doesn't take much to be a river in that part of the world) in remotest Reeves County NW of Pecos and east of Guadalupe National Park that can be accessed and camped on, but my inquiries up to now have led to naught. I plan to go if I ever find such. Same thing for the headwaters canyons of Toyah and Madera creeks in the Davis Mountains. Actually, my family camped on those last two when I was a child. But, inquiries about where to older siblings and an aged aunt just result in replies that it was somewhere in the Davis Mountains, and local inquiries lead to nothing. The giant springs at Balmorea State Park feed into Toyah Creek, and Cave Spring Lake in the Davis Mountains does also, but the latter is off limits due to protection of an endangered fish population, and the former is not remote.
I also hear humors of private ranches in the Eagle Mountains and in the Glass Mountains that allow limited access for campers, but when I focus my inquiries, I get blank stares, or replies that that is all private land.
Mark, believe me, the Trans Pecos is Southwestern if there ever was Southwestern. That is not Texan talk.
AAR, folks who have not been there need to go. Or don't, and leave more room for the rest of us.
mcneely
---- Mark Hineline <mhineline@mail.ucsd.edu> wrote:
> Of course, only Texans think that Texas is the southwest.
>
>
> On Mar 25, 2011, at 1:13 PM, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>
> > ---- Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >> Mrs Squirrel tires of the long cold winters in Central Oregon.
> >>
> >> "Next year we will take a two week camping trip to the south, where
> >> it's
> >> warmer," she declared.
> >>
> >> She's thinking of deserty, sunny places. I envision camping in the
> >> sun,
> >> near a stream, surrounded by cottonwood trees and sandstone hills.
> >> The
> >> nearest neighbor a quarter-mile away.
> >>
> >> Where would you go to spend a few days in the southwest?
> >
> > Mr. Squirrel, I don't know how far from Oregon you want to travel.
> > If you are up for quite a long trip, the Big Bend of Texas,
> > including the National Park, but other wonderful locations around
> > there as well, can't be beat. Not a lot of that sandstone you
> > mentioned, mostly basalts, granites, and limestones, but wonderful
> > at any rate. If you go that way, don't miss Big Bend State National
> > Area and the Chinati Mountains. The Chinatis are still mostly off
> > limits as private property until the state gets its new Chinati
> > State Natural Area open, but there are some commercial sites like
> > Chinati Hot Springs that are not only very nice, but that particular
> > one is inexpensive. Other locales in the vicinity well worth
> > anyone's time are Davis Mountains (including the state park there,
> > which except for being granitic, fits the bill you described very
> > well), Guadalupe National Park, Balmorhea State Park (outdoor
> > swimming in winter in one of the world's largest spring fed swimming
> > pools, where you can swim with endangered fishes). For the solitude
> > you described, best bet is Big Bend National Park , Big Bend State
> > Natural Area, and Black Gap Wildlife Management Area. In all of
> > those, you can drive to back country campsites A bit further east,
> > but still in desert country, is Devil's River State Natural Area,
> > located along the Devil's River, one of the spring fed marvels of
> > Texas's Edward's Plateau. The water and air are warm enough for
> > swimming in March. Since Texas and nearby states have finished with
> > Spring Break, visitation to the parks will be dropping off enough to
> > make old farts like ourselves comfortable.
> >
> > mcneely
>
--
David McNeely
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