Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico), Texas (again), Las Cruces, White Sands, Santa Fe (New Mexico) and Cortez (Colarado)

Another very long one here, we've been without working internet for a while now.

So picking up where I left off last time, the next day we visited the caverns at Carlsbad. They were absolutely massive, so much better than I had imagined. At their deepest they're around 720ft from the ground surface and full of little underground streams and lakes.

After the caverns we took a drive to Las Cruces, and our new campground. In order to get there we passed back into Texas again, drove for a few hours. While we passed through El Paso we called in at a boot store and finally got our cowboy boots! After that, we drove for an hour more before passing back into New Mexico.
We didn't really have anything planned for that night so we played beer pong. Unfortunately Scott and I lost our second match, but it was to the winning team so not that bad really. After an incredibly comfy night we drove to White Sands National Park. We got stopped by immigration control on the way, they asked if we were all US citizens and when Juli said no we ended up having to pull over and show them our passports, it added a bit of excitement to an otherwise mundane drive. The sand it the park was formed from gypsum so is a bright glittering white and really fine. We spent an hour or so taking daft photos then took a nature walk across the dunes.

From White Sands we travelled to Santa Fean campground, just outside the city. Santa Fe itself is the oldest state capital in the USA, and looks so amazingly mexican. There are 29 shades of brown/sand colour that the residents are allowed to paint their adobe style houses to keep it looking as traditional as possible.  That night we went out for mexican in the city, and arrived back to a FREEZING campsite. That night the wind was so strong that we were all a bit concerned our tents were going to break. Thankfully they didn't so this morning was spent wandering the city rather than fixing broken tents. We visited the oldest church in the USA and wandered around looking at the Native American arts and crafts. I really enjoyed Santa Fe, but it just didn't feel at all like the US. We may as well have been in Mexico!

This afternoon we drove from the desert of New Mexico to the snowy mountains of Cortez in Colarado. There is a 60% chance of snow tonight so we've all wussed out and paid the $5 to have a cabin rather than tents.

That last picture is the view from our cabin just before the sun went down. It was so strange that in the space of an hour we went to what felt like cold, but was realistically 18 degrees C, temps to a climate so cold it has and will probably soon be snowing. Colarado is beautiful so far, it looks strangely alpine in its architecture and has gorgeous snow-topped mountains everywhere you look.

Love you all xxxxx