So many people have asked us why we went to Texas and New Mexico for camping when we live right next to the Rockies in Colorado… Well boys and girls, this may be a surprise to you but it was snowing when we left Colorado, and cold-weather camping gear is not within the budget of college students, but $150 on gas and food for a few days is.
Taken up in Santa Fe National Forest, over 8,000ft elevation. Photo is my own.
I find it funny that so many people were worried about us “girls alone in the woods” offering advice of bringing mace or boys. Yes, it was just me and my best friend. Your average thing of mace won’t really do anything to a large animal except piss it off, and no boys allowed on a girls-only camping trip. In fact my dad wanted to make sure there were no boys going with us. My dad has faith in my knowledge of the outdoors because he raised me in the outdoors, and I’m sure part of him worries I’ll drop out of school to become a ski bum or a mountain woman (those thoughts have crossed my mind more than once, not sorry, dad).
Celebratory pose after starting the fire with only that little guy in my hand, and old mans beard (essentially dried out moss if you don’t know what that is).
I find being in the middle of nowhere in a geographical area I’ve never been, knowing there isn’t much around except for animals, with limited resources, more comfortable than walking on campus late at night with a thing of mace.
We went to Texas and New Mexico, and we were the most uncomfortable when we had to get a motel in Texas. The state park man said we didn’t need to make a reservation because there were “plenty of spots” when we called over the phone… But when we got there, the man at the gate wouldn’t let us in without a reservation because they were full. We’ve now learned our lesson- ALWAYS MAKE A RESERVATION EVEN IF THEY SAY YOU DON’T NEED TO.
So we stayed in a sketchy hotel next to the beloved Whataburger in Amarillo, Texas. We got up at the butt-crack of dawn to get to New Mexico as fast as possible, taking Route 66, and then took a little tour of the Pecos National Historical Park on our way to the campsite… It was beautiful and full of historical significance.
Pecos National Historical Park with my best friend/adventure buddy.
We climbed inside these underground rooms which were once used as important meeting areas and ritual areas.
There are actually two churches in this picture. The stone “foundation” you see is from a church built in the 1600’s, and the smooth stone with crumbling walls you see were built over 100 years later in the 1700’s.
Learning about the Pecos tribe was not planned, but it was worth the stop and gaining of knowledge about other cultures.
Within an hour of getting to our camp site we had cleaned up the garbage from the previous people, rebuilt a fire pit that had also been destroyed by the careless people before us, set up our tent and hammock, got a fire going using natural resources only, collected enough wood to last us through the night, and had water on the fire boiling for food and hot chocolate. We split any wood we needed to with the little hatchet we brought, sharpened our marshmallow sticks, and slept alright through the night despite the cold and a cougar outside our camp screaming at 3am. We popped a squat when we needed to pee (there actually was no bathrooms at all where we were), took diaper wipe baths, and we were just fine alone.
My own photo.
We jammed singing the campfire song to the ukulele, roasted some marshmallows and made S’mores, and took some shots of the night sky.
Also my own photo.
Our only regrets would be not making that reservation in Texas and not bringing more blankets. We did wake up with a sheet of ice coating our tent still, and couldn’t feel our fingers most of the morning.
We didn’t need “boys to help” us. We didn’t need mace. We had ourselves, our friendship, our survival skills, our sense of adventure, and a growth mindset.
To check out the video footage of our trip click HERE!
Less Than Elegant 