RJ Rambles about her honeymoon

Hey everybody! I am back from my honeymoon and working again! Last week was a blast. I'm gonna tell you about some of it. 

We went to New Mexico, to Carlsbad Caverns and then to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The caverns were gorgeous. The mountains were beautiful. We went on a couple of pretty strenuous hikes, which was really fun. And we camped out under the stars for a couple of nights. 

On the way to Carlsbad, we stopped and stayed one night at a state park. That was probably the worst night of the trip. The park itself was pretty ran down. There was an electrical plant right across the lake from where we camped. It was ugly and you could hear the hum of it all night. But we were able to have a camp fire, so that was nice. We cooked hamburgers and s'mores and it was great. 

But then it got really cold and really windy overnight. The cold wasn't so bad, but the wind was crazy. It blew the tent all night long and I could not get any sleep. I kept waking up every few minutes, checking my phone, seeing that a storm was coming, then putting the phone away and trying to sleep again. Eventually, we woke up at 4:30am, packed everything up, and left. The storm was supposed to hit at 7am, and I didn't like the idea of everything getting wet and us having to pack up in the rain. So we drove through the dark and it rained on us a lot while we were driving, but eventually we made it safely to Carlsbad. 

In Carlsbad, we spent a couple of nights in a hotel room. That was nice. We went to small local zoo and we went to see the caverns. It was extremely cold both days we were there, but we kept seeing that it would warm up soon. 

Then we went to Guadalupe Mountains and set up camp there. We were intending to stay 3 nights in a tent there, but our first night, it got down to 25 degrees. We have good sleeping bags, so we were warm inside the sleeping bags, but as soon as anything poked out of those bags, it was SO cold. So getting up to go pee in the night, we froze. Making breakfast in the morning, we froze. We could do nothing but lie wrapped up in our bags. 

So, the next day, I decided to cancel the camping and just go back to the hotel! It did end up warming up over the next couple of days, but the nights were still down in the 30s. I think I made the right call. We had a good time in the hotel room that we wouldn't have been able to do in the tent. 

And I got to go on a couple of great hikes. We hiked the "Devil's Hall" at Guadalupe, which was an out and back trail about 2.5 miles each way. The last mile or so of the trail was all boulder climbing as well, and there was one pretty sketchy area that they called "the clam shell", which was basically climbing a 20ft high cliff. It was really fun, but walking on rocks and climbing boulders absolutely killed my feet and ankles. 

Then, the next day, we hiked McKittrick Canyon. This was my favorite part of the whole trip, honestly. The canyon was beautiful. It's exactly what I wanted from a hike. It was another out and back trail, this time about 4.5 miles each way. The mountains are in the middle of the desert, so there's not a lot of trees or vegetation around, but these canyons funnel rain and provide shelter from the winds, which allow trees to grow here. So in the middle of the desert, there's this canyon with maple trees and other trees that you usually don't see in the south all growing and changing colors in the fall. It was so cool. The hike takes you past a couple of old cabins that used to be lived in by hunters and settlers. It takes you across a couple of stream crossings. And it takes you to The Grotto, which is a cool stone formation - the fossilized remnants of a reef. All these mountains used to be under the sea a long time ago and sometimes it's pretty easy to tell. 

Anyway, that was my trip. We had a pretty great time. It's not your typical honeymoon, but we don't really have your typical relationship, and it was not your typical wedding either. 

I learned a few things about myself on the trip. 

First of all, I love hiking. Both of the trails (plus the couple others we did that I didn't talk about) were amazing and my favorite parts of the trip. I love just walking around looking at nature. I love climbing to the top of a hill and seeing a new landscape in front of me and being blown away by it over and over again. I love walking so far that I can't see the place that I came from anymore. Just going out and getting "lost" in the woods is really fun for me. 

Secondly, I don't like camping quite as much. Camping feels like something that's necessary for me to hike really. Especially if I want to do longer treks. Eventually I want to do some backpacking trips, where I have to carry the tent on my back and hike multiple days. But sleeping out in the woods is really hard for me. I never quite feel safe. I never quite get enough sleep. Getting up and having to pee outside in the dark sucks as well. And so far I have not had to poop in the woods, but I know that's coming one day and I'm not looking forward to that either! 

Thirdly, camping in the cold sucks. I hate being cold. I wasn't ever worried that we were in danger or anything. Our bags were very warm. But it meant that we couldn't do any of the fun stuff  that comes with camping very easily. We couldn't really sit out and look at the stars or watch the sunrise or anything, because it was just too cold to comfortably do so. I didn't even feel like making breakfast, because I was freezing. Just wanted to curl up in the tent, or run away to the warm car for a while. 

And lastly, I loved the travel. I liked driving and seeing all the different little towns along the way. I liked watching the landscape change as we drove into new regions. I really want to do more of this. I'd love to take a long road trip over through Arizona, up the coast of California, and all the way to Washington. Stopping by places like Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Mount Ranier. I want to see the little town where Twin Peaks was filmed and where the waterfall is. Then I want to drive back home through Utah and Colorado, see Zion and the Rocky Mountains, and the Grand Canyon. That's kinda a dream trip for me. Don't know if I'll ever be able to do it. For this trip, we had to leave my dogs with my mom and I think she was pretty over them by the time we got back. Plus I have work to do. Maybe one day though. Or at least we'd do a little of this at a time. 

Okay, that's enough rambling I think. I had a great time. I can't wait to do another vacation and go somewhere else new. But only after it warms up a bit. Next year, I'd like to go somewhere I can kayak or canoe down a calm river and learn how to do that properly. 

Thank you all for reading and supporting me and allowing me to do stuff like this. I love all of you! Hope you have an amazing week!