Las Cruces – Carlsbad
Chamizal National Memorial
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
After leaving Las Cruces today our first stop was the Chamizal National Memorial in EL Paso. Driving into El Paso we drove right next to “The Wall” on the border with Mexico. Part of the road was elevated so we could clearly see into Mexico and the difference in houses and living conditions to that on the American side was quite marked. The Visitors Center was closed because of COVID but we were lucky enough to be spotted by a ranger and he came out and gave us quite a bit of information and stamped my National Parks Passport book. The Memorial commemorates a boundary agreement between Mexico and the US, and the diplomacy process that was needed for this to succeed.
The second stop for the day on the way to Carlsbad was Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The Mountains were stunning. It was a little late in the day for us to tackle any of the hikes but we looked through the Visitors Center and decided we’d come back one day and complete some of the hikes. It was very windy and cold.
We finished the day with dinner in a little authentic family Mexican restaurant. They don’t seem to allow eating inside in New Mexico so we sat outside, it was a little cold.
