My original plan for this summer was thru hiking the Appalachian Trail, however, Hurricane Helene forced us into a revision. The hurricane did significant damage to the trail in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee and devastated important “trail towns” such as Hot Springs, NC and Damascus, VA. For me, the AT is not an addition to my resume, but a bucket list experience that I’m willing to postpone in order to take it all in. I’m currently registered to start the thru hike in March 2026. More on that in the future. We decided to head east to Florida for a few weeks and then on to the Georgia/North Carolina/Tennessee/Virginia mountains for some volunteer work on the trail and some of the hard hit trail towns.
We left home mid April with our first destination being Petrified Forest National Park. We made a pit stop in Winslow, AZ at RelicRoad Brewing Co. Nice place, but unfortunately, none of their own beers on tap. The brewery is across the street from the famous corner from the Eagles song “Take It Easy.”
While we were there, a gentleman asked if we’d like him to take our picture. He turned out to be Ron Adamson, sculptor of the statue.
We moved on to a free campground just outside the gates of Petrified Forest NP for the night. Windy! Cold joined the wind the next day as we explored the park. Not a lot of hiking to be had, mostly roadside stops to view various points of interest
We hiked the Blue Mesa Trail for some great views and colors.
While the park was certainly beautiful, I would consider it a “drive through” park that you can easily cover in a day or less.
We continued east, stopping in Grants, NM for rehydration and executive planning at Junkyard On 66 Brewery.
In addition to having great beer and BBQ, they were also a Harvest Hosts location and invited us to spend the night. We awoke the next morning to discover that the storm system chasing us had caught up.
We decided to check out nearby El Malpais National Monument before moving on. We hiked the El Calderon Loop Trail, an interesting mix of lava tubes and a cinder cone. The weather wasn’t great but an enjoyable hike nonetheless.
We moved on to Albuquerque, NM and visited Starr Brothers Brewing, another Harvest Hosts campsite. Great beer and the food looked great as well.
We visited Petroglyph National Monument on the west side of Albuquerque the next day. Even though it’s a national monument, it’s fairly urban. Many warnings of vehicle break ins at some of the trailheads. That being said, there are tons of petroglyphs to see on easy hikes.
We elected not to hang around Abuquerque too long and headed north toward Bandelier National Monument. This is a don’t miss if you’re in the area as well as the drive in from the west on Highway 4. The dispersed campsites I had scoped out in the area were unusable due to snow and mud, so we opted for a paid (gasp) campsite in the NM campground. Very nice with a number of coyotes around at night. Bandelier is home to a number of cliff dwellings that you can explore. We hiked the Alcove House Trail along with the Pueblo Loop Trail to get a good look at the dwellings.
We opted to extend the hike down the canyon and were treated to a series of beaver dams and signs of beaver activity.
After a quick lunch in the van, we hiked the Falls Trail which boasted a terminus at the Rio Grande.
Unfortunately, an unadvertised rockslide terminated the trail at the 2/3rds point. Still a nice hike with great views.
We moved on to Santa Fe, NM for a rehydration and planning session at The Brakeroom-Santa Fe Brewing Co. Great beer in a super interesting building that was a dormitory for railroad workers back in the day. Great beer garden as well. We had glamorous accomodations in the Trader Joe’s parking lot for the night and visited some art galleries the next day.
We also enjoy visiting state capitol buildings whenever possible. New Mexico’s State Capitol Building is nothing short of spectacular. In fact, one could make an argument that it is more of an art museum than a government building.
We decided to start making our way south with idea of eventually making it to Florida before the heat really set in. We stopped in Roswell, NM at Black Cock Brewery for food and drink. Great beer and staff along with outstanding corned beef nachos! Once again, outstanding accomodations at the Planet Fitness parking lot to wrap up the day.
We continued south the next day, making a stop in Carlsbad, NM at Guadalupe Mountain Brewing Co. The beer was good and it looked to be a pretty happening lunch place with pizza being the star attraction. We continued south to a BLM campsite I had identified as being very close to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park gate. Easy access on a ridge up above the main road, only one problem. We could see a dust storm moving our way from around 10 miles out. It ended up not being a big deal, but you didn’t want to be outside. Interesting view with oil rigs in the distance flaring off natural gas.
We had a permit to explore the cavern in Carlsbad Caverns NP the next day. We hiked a bit around the visitors center while waiting for our time window. Nothing spectacular, just some desert hiking. We opted to walk down into the cavern through the natural opening instead of taking the elevator, the same route the bats take.
Once in the big room, the size of the cavern is stunning, easily the largest I’ve ever been in.
After touring the cavern, we continued south to Texas and visited Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Getting there late, we checked out the visitors center for hikes and settled into our campsite, a wide spot on the side of the road with great views. We hiked Guadalupe Peak the next day, which is the highest point in Texas. This is a tough one with 4000 feet of elevation gain in 4 miles, the payoff being stunning panoramic views.
We hiked McKittrick Canyon the next day, an easy hike and a welcome respite from the day before.
Our next destination was to be Big Bend National Park on the Texas border with Mexico, however, our campsite in the Chisos Basin Campground wouldn’t be available for two more days. We elected to double back into New Mexico through El Paso, TX. We made a stop at DeadBeach Brewery for rehydration before moving on. A bit pretentious for my taste. In Las Cruces, NM, we stopped at Ice Box Brewing and Bosque Brewing while waiting out a dust storm. Good beer and great nachos at Icebox. We proceeded north toward Alamogordo, NM only to be stopped by 1 hour plus road closure due to the dust storm. We were finally able to settle into our plush Walmart parking lot accomodations around 9 pm.
We visited White Sands National Park the next day. I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way for this one. It’s literally a whole lot of sand that is white.
We drove through the park and stopped to hike the Alkali Flat Trail. After less than a mile, we turned back being underwhelmed with the monotony.
Making our way back towards Texas, we stopped at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park and hiked the Dog Canyon Trail. This was a real thigh burner for the first mile, but rewarded us with some outstanding views.
We decided to drive halfway to Big Bend NP and camped at a rest stop in Marfa, TX. Nothing exciting except a zero visibility nighttime dust storm on the way.
We arrived at Big Bend the next day and checked in to our campsite.
You could easily spend a week here and do a considerable amount of driving within the park in order to see everything. We were fortunate in that the hikes we wanted to do had trailheads in our campground. We hiked The Window Trail, a beautiful canyon hike that eventually cliffs you out.
The next day we hiked the South Rim Loop, a 14 mile hike with sweeping views of Mexico.
We headed east toward San Antonio, TX and settled in at Bandera Brewery as we had a Harvest Hosts reservation.
We had plans to tour San Antonio the next day, but some sort of festival made parking the van without taking out a mortgage impossible. We decided to move on to Austin, TX instead. We toured the Texas State Capitol and while it wasn’t an art gallery like New Mexico, the grounds were beautiful with many sculptures and displays.
We also briefly toured the University of Texas at Austin campus. Good luck parking! We had a Harvest Hosts reservation at Jester King Brewery just west of town. Great combination of brewery/farm/event venue in the middle of nowhere, live bluegrass band and our campsite was secluded from everything.
Since the hiking portion of our eastbound leg is now over, we made the next day a driving day; destination Lake Charles, LA. I initially thought our campsite that evening would be one of the several casinos (along with a little Texas Hold ‘Em) but I quickly settled on Crying Eagle Brewing, another Harvest Host. Great beer, poutine(!!!!) and a country music band made it a great stop. Bonus points for putting the Kentucky Derby on for us!
Destination New Orleans! Always one of my favorite cities for food, we found street parking a couple of blocks from the French Quarter and hustled to Johnny’s Po-Boys before it closed. Highly recommend! Cash only and a favorite with locals even though it’s in the quarter. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling and sipping. We drove out to Audubon Park and parked the van the next day, opting to bicycle around Tulane University, Loyola University and the Port of New Orleans. First stop, Port Orleans Brewing Company.
Good beer, but not much happening while we were there. We pedaled on to Domilise’s Po-Boy & Bar. My kind of place; closes at 3 pm, line out the door at 2:45 pm. These places in the neighborhoods are everywhere here. We put up the bikes and started making our way to our campsite on Lake Pontchartrain, stopping at Skeeta Hawk Brewing on the way. Good beer, friendly staff.
We headed for the Mobile, AL area the next day via the scenic route of US 90 along the Gulf of MEXICO coast, stopping at Debris Po-Boys & Drinks for an Oysters Rockefeller Po-Boy. In case you were wondering, I would drive there tomorrow from my current location (Palm Harbor, FL) for another one. That good! We spent the night with close friends in Summerdale, AL and had a great time catching up with them.
We moved on to Tallahassee, FL for a stay at my sisters home and to pay homage to Sir Ruckus.
We visited The Hub at Feather Oaks for great beer and BBQ.
We moved on to Palm Harbor, FL for a weeks long stay and are currently planning to head for the mountains in the next couple of weeks.
Stay Tuned!
What a great trip! We have loved going to so many of these places! Glad you are enjoying the road!