Driving to Carlsbad

For a few weeks now I have been planning and working on a trip to Carlsbad. It has been about 20 years since Thomas and I have been in that area. Since Thomas has some time he needs to take off we decided on a trip for Christmas. I have carved five stamps and made boxes for those stamps to plant while on the trip and I am also going to do maintenance on a couple of my existing boxes. There are also a few boxes for me to look for while on the trip.

This morning we left Santa Fe sometime around 7:30am and headed out. It was cold and foggy but the drive was okay. We made a stop in Vaughn to have some breakfast and coffee and then continued on. My first letterboxing business was to stop at a rest area about 20 miles north of Roswell to replant a box. I had a box called Aphonopelma (the stamp was carved by Highwayman) planted at this rest area but it was geotrashed - the stamp and logbook were still there but the original box was taken and replaced with a soft sided CD case and trinkets. My logbook was damp and messy but I was glad the stamp had survived since it is the only stamp that Thomas (Highwayman) has carved. I had received notes about the box being geotrashed and on a trip a couple of years ago I stopped and took the stuff with me. I hadn't had time to make it back to the area until now. So we stopped and I walked around looking for a suitable spot for the box. Unfortunately, the place is well cared for and I couldn't find a decent spot to hide it. So I decided to hold off and think about it and see if I come up with a better place.

We continued on to Roswell and we were going to stop at the UFO Museum to update a box I have there but decided we needed the time for other things and we would stop on our way back home on Tuesday. So our next stop ended up being in Artesia. Here we looked for and found Love this Spot #11 by Road Junkies. I easily found the box and went to a bench to sit and stamp in. When I opened the box I only found the logbook - no stamp. As I looked through the logbook I noticed that there were only signature stamps up until July 2015 and after that there were only written names. So I figure that the stamp got taken by a geocacher. I wanted an image so I found a raised portion on a statue near where the box was hidden and did a sort of rubbing and then replaced the box. Now it was time to continue our trip.

Before leaving Artesia we filled the car with gas and then continued south on US285. About 12 miles north of Carlsbad we turned onto NM137. We had a few things to do on this route. First, we drove about 22 miles down NM137 until we reached the junction of CR409. We turned here and drove another seven miles to Sitting Bull Falls Recreation Area. We arrived at the parking area and we were greeted with lots of wind that was frigid. There were only two other cars in the lot and a forest ranger truck close by. We saw one couple just coming back from a hike as we set out for our walk to the falls. There is a short paved trail to a viewing platform and then from there you can go down a few steps and walk around the pool of water at the base of the falls. The wind was a little better here since there were some cliff walls that protected the area. So we enjoyed the sound of the water and the views, I took some pictures and then I hid a box. I planted Sitting Bull Falls and I hope that it will get some visitors. The area is really worth the drive. We left the area and headed back toward NM137 and along the way we stopped to look for Sitting Bull Falls Letterbox placed by LazyD. There had been some attempts but we decided to stop and look since we were right there. We didn't find the box so we continued on.

When we arrived at the junction for NM137 we stopped at a picnic area so I could plant my next box. This box is called NM Scenic Byways: Guadalupe National Back Country. This didn't take long and we were soon on our way again. We continued along NM137 and made our next stop at The Flying Paperboy Memorial. For years I have talked about placing a box here and now I was finally here. So after taking a few pictures we walked around and found a great hiding spot for Frank A. Kindel (The Flying Paperboy of the Guadalupes). And once that was done we continued just a short distance to Queen, New Mexico. Not much here - an RV park, a general store and a couple of other buildings. A quarter mile or so down the road from the store we found an old chimney surrounded by a fence. At this spot I place another box - Queen, NM. By the time we finished driving NM137 and hiding these boxes it was about 4:30pm and the sun was getting lower. So we made our way back up NM137 heading back to US285. It was somewhere around 6:00pm when we arrived in Carlsbad. We were both hungry (we had only had breakfast, no lunch) so we decided to stop and eat before going to the hotel.

We stopped at Pizza Inn and had their buffet. Once we were full we headed to the hotel and checked in. Now that we are settled and I have logged in the new boxes it is time for some rest. Tomorrow we spend the day at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.