Fast Forward to Texas, El Nino was wrapping up and the weather was amazing. It was hotter in Ohio than it was in Texas. The rain fall canceled our plans of hitting Palo Duro Canyon State Park. When it rains in these sandy desert parks, there is danger for flash floods and the roads are impassible unless you have 4x4 mud tire combo. Even then, it sucks to walk around in because you end up with 5 inch platforms of mud stuck to your shoes. We headed further south and made it to Caprock Canyons State Park. We pretty much had the whole park to ourselves.
As we were walking down the trail, I saw some fresh scat and thought out loud, that is weird, that looks like Bison poop. I thought all the Bison were cattle guarded... I look to my right and about 20 feet away, a Bison is munch'n. I yelled out holy shit. The Bison looked up at us and then right back to eating. No fucks were given.
That night, we climbed some nearby rocks and sipped some Almond Tequila as we watched the sunset. The next morning we got up around 5am to watch the sunrise at the same spot. This park was the best part of the trip.
We were on a schedule and blasted through New Mexico. More to come from that section but I did not take any photos on my Canon 7D MKII. We made it to Colorado and everytime I drive to this state, it is so obvious because the scenery just switches.
After getting the mandatory "we made it to Colorado we can't believe it" photo we made it to The Great Sand Dunes National Park. The main campground was busy as hell and I knew about some spots that were off the 4x4 trail that goes into the backcountry. Incase you were wondering, yes, the park has compressed air to fill up your tires once you hit pavement. I was not aware so I drove on the sand with 40 PSI and never got stuck.
We spent the night next to the dunes and got an early start the next day. On the way out, I got some gas from a small Conoco gas station and that's when the hell really started. The van would constantly struggle and it took forever to make our way to Loveland. We went to Devils Backbone for a sunset hike and some brews.
The next day, we went for a hike in Genesee Park on the Chavez and Beaver Brook Trail Loop. After we got done, we found out that we were signing our lease for our new apartment. Very exciting.
