The Events of Tuesday, February 22, 2011

                On my half-birthday (I’m now sixteen and a half!), we were rudely awakened, just after midnight, by a loud beeping. Abby later said she knew at once that it was the carbon monoxide alarm, but the rest of us were too groggy to ascertain which dang gadget of ours was making a racket this time.

                After everyone made sure everyone else was awake, Daddy heroically emerged from the back of the RV (the ‘master suite’, as we jokingly refer to it) and unplugged the renegade beeping contraption. As my tired mind began to realize that it was the alarm with which I was most familiar, I roused myself from my warm, comfortable bed to help kill the atrocious noise. This particular carbon monoxide alarm (we have more than one) requires that the battery be switched around and plugged in each night as we set up camp, and, each morning, when we “break camp”, the battery must be unplugged and reversed.

                So we took out the battery and put it back in to test it, and it said “LON”, which somehow stands for low or no battery. The battery was dead. We got an identical battery from our bag of fresh batteries, and this new battery was defective. Borrowing the battery from our other carbon monoxide detector, we put it in this carbon monoxide detector, tested the air to make sure there was no carbon monoxide (there was none), and then plugged it back in and went back to bed.

                This trip seems to be developing bookends. We started this trip with a challenging hike down Cleetwood Trail to Crater Lake in Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, and we ended this trip with a challenging hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Furthermore, we started this trip with our carbon monoxide alarm going off in Crater Lake National Park’s Mazama Campground, and we ended our trip with our carbon monoxide alarm going off in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Only this time, it was a low battery.

                Several hours later, Daddy woke us up (he did it in the wrong time zone, so we woke up before 7), and we readied ourselves for an eventful day in the Wilderness Area of Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We dressed, had breakfast, brushed teeth, packed lunch in our backpacks, pulled in our slide outs, and secured the contents of the RV. Next, we put our hiking boots on, before bidding goodbye to Daddy and Ben, who will climb Guadalupe Peak, which is the highest point in Texas, and therefore dubbed the “Top of Texas”.

                After Mom and the girls dropped us off at 8:20, Dad and I (Ben here now, not Caitlin) started off on our 8.4 mile hike with an elevation gain of 2930 feet, not a minor ascent. As the trail began, we immediately started climbing. The trail is steadily graded, included regular switchbacks, and is well used. On the way up, we passed three other men heading to the top and, pretty close to the beginning of the trail, one coming down. Already? Wow. Steadily climbing, we wondered exactly which peak was the “Top of Texas”. There was one that looked like it could be a peak, but the trail headed the other way. Was this tree-covered hill the top? No, we are heading farther west. Oh! This one could be the top! No, it isn’t quite tall enough. Finally, after passing a cliff and crossing a bridge, we saw the true peak. As we climbed the last mile and a half, we met someone headed back down. When he said that the summit was a half hour away, we determined to push on to summit at 11 o’clock. As I turned onto the final switchback, I saw a metal triangular pyramid marking the summit: 8751 feet, the “Top of Texas”. Signs on the marker commemorated milestones by the US Postal Service and American Airlines. Why? I honestly don’t know.

                I signed the register and Dad took photos of the panoramic view before we settled down for a quick lunch. To the south, we saw the back side of Texas’ El Capitan, an 8,000 ft. cliff, and the nearby salt basin. All around us to the east was a relatively flat expanse of ranches and farms. To the north was the rest of the Guadalupe Mountains. We were on top of it all. With a light breeze, we cooled off fairly quickly. Half an hour after reaching the summit, we started the trip back down. We sped downhill, occasionally stopping to talk with passing hikers, have some water, or just enjoy the scenery. Before we knew it, we were back at the visitor center. Dad called the girls’ phone, but they had no reception, so they weren’t answering. We rested on some benches on a patio to wait for the girls to come pick us up.

                Upon leaving our men at the trailhead to Guadalupe Peak, we ladies drove to our hike. This is simpler than it sounds, however. Because there is only one road that goes through the park, one must follow that road out of the park and then follow another road back into the park. Soon, almost ten miles later, we arrived at McKittrick Canyon Visitor Center, from where we embarked on McKittrick Canyon Trail. On our way in, I signed the hiker registry as the “Traveling Taylor Girls”.

                Mostly silent, we hiked through the desert, through intermittent shade, pausing often to take puff breaks and sip water, crossing two sparkling green streams before arriving at our first landmark on our tour, Pratt Lodge. This trail is both a historic landmark tour and a wilderness trail. Here, we found a stone house that served as the Pratt family’s summer cottage during the Great Depression. The door was locked, but on it were the house’s floor plan and information about it. We looked in through all the windows to see as much of the interior as we could.

                Just across from the Pratt Cabin, we sat down at a very comfortable picnic table (with contoured benches to better fit one’s rump!) to take our first snack break of Ritz crackers, granola bars and water. During the snack, a dainty, tiny periwinkle-colored butterfly landed on my sunglasses. But before Lindsey could snap a picture, the butterfly took flight and was off. After we finished eating, Mom spotted a mule deer walking slowly behind the building that had served as stables to the Pratts, but now serves as storage for the National Park Service Rangers. Abby met it on the other side and snapped some great close-up pictures of the doe. After our refreshing break, we headed on to The Grotto. As we walked, the scenery began to change, more woodland and less desert, more tall trees, with spots of cool shade, and less cacti.

                Soon, we arrived at The Grotto. The rock formations looked like the kind we’ve seen in caves, but this is an open cave, so the formations were exposed to the elements and therefore looked more worn and smooth. Where water still dripped, continuing to form the structures, there was moss and green algae. We sat down inside the cool shade of The Grotto to have yet another snack of Ritz crackers, granola bars and water. Mom walked the additional sixty feet to explore the Hunter Line Cabin, while we girls played with our cameras and the drips and tried to capture the drips in a picture.

                This being the end of the trail, we walked back the way we had come, this time noticing the relatively long, black fish in a stream in the canyon below the trail. As we hiked, we began to chat amongst ourselves and found that the time passed much faster that way. Before we knew it, we were at the second stream (the second one we’d crossed on the way in, but the first one we would cross on the way out), where we sat down on some flat, stair-like rocks nearby to eat lunch. And the bees and other insects gathered ‘round to bug us. It seemed that, the louder we screamed, the farther they went, but, the more we waved our hands around, the closer they came. It was an interesting lunch.

                Afterward, we continued to walk and talk. As we crossed the first stream (the first one we’d crossed on the way in, but the second one we crossed on the way out), an elderly, hilariously and brightly dressed male hiker with long, graying hair strode towards us, stopped midstride, threw his arms out wide, and declared embarrassingly loudly, “YOU must be the Trrrraveling Taylor Sisters!” We replied rather shyly that, yes, we were the said sisters, and he commented on what a beautiful day it was to be hiking before we went our separate ways. The hippie hiker, as we affectionately referred to the guy afterwards, went deeper into the canyon and wilderness area, while we continued to make our way out of it. Soon enough, we arrived back at the Visitor Center, where I signed out of the trail registry, and we all hopped back in Harvey, hot, tired, and sore from head to toe because of the hike.

                We drove back to the Headquarters Visitor Center, and just as we pulled up, Sally (our name for one of the cell phones) rang (it hadn’t worked until we were in the vicinity). Dad and Ben were waiting for us and ready to go! So they came back to the RV, and, amidst tale-telling of our adventures from both separate hiking groups, we changed into cool clothes and put away the stuff we had taken on our hikes, before we drove out of the park again on our way to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Goodbye, TEXAS!

                As we passed through Carlsbad, Mom and Abby spotted the exact Hampton Inn & Suites that we stayed at and the neighboring Chili’s restaurant where we celebrated Abby’s birthday on our last trip through the American Southwest. Next, we drove to Roswell, where Mommy spotted gas for $3.23 when Daddy thought the cheapest we would be able to find was $3.69, but he was accidentally looking at diesel prices. After filling up on gas, we proceeded to the Town and Country RV Park. I laughed to see tumbleweed tumbling around, as well as alien and UFO decorations and signs everywhere even in newspaper weather reports. As we waited for Dad to register us at the campground, Ben read aloud about the supposed UFO landing near Roswell, NM. Spooky!

                We had visited the UFO Museum and Research Center on our previous trip through the Four Corner states, but looked it up for fun, only to discover a newer, unexpectedly high admission price. So we decided to skip it this time. After registering at the RV park office, making the RV level, hooking up, emptying the RV’s waste water tanks, and setting up the inside of the RV, we all welcomed a shower at the impeccably clean restrooms in Town and Country RV Park. Next, we worked together as a family (something we’ve gotten very good at these past eight months) to prepare dinner. We worked just as hard to devour that delicious dinner, followed by the second half of a scrumptious golden coconut cake. Perfect! A half cake to celebrate my half birthday!

                After cleaning up dinner and watching “Alvin and the Chipmunks”, we kids headed to bed, welcoming the chance to recharge our tired and sore bodies and even sleep in tomorrow morning.

                However, Mom, working on the computer long after we kids fell asleep, heard every single dog in the town, growling, howling, yipping and barking all at the same time, at about eleven o’clock at night, for about twenty minutes, non-stop. Then, all of a sudden, they all stopped, all at the same time. So did Mom’s heart. She went to bed, almost believing that another UFO had landed in Roswell, New Mexico. Spoooooooooooky!