Excursion to Carlsbad, NM

A three-day weekend so we head off to Carlsbad, NM. We planned on staying at our very first KOA, visiting the Caverns, making a side trip to Guadalupe Mountains, and seeing a nearby New Mexico state park. As it turns out, we did all of those things with some great adventures interspersing themselves throughout our journeys!

I'll start with the trip to Carlsbad and the KOA. We got our PuP all ready and we headed out of Midland early Friday morning. Once we got to Eunice, NM, we started realizing that we were going to arrive at the KOA Carlsbad much earlier than our noon check-in time. Seems I had forgotten about that silly time zone change to Mountain Time. Sigh. 

We continued driving along but decided we should stop for a small bite to eat before we set up the PuP at the campground. Ignoring our GPS' insistence that we take the Relief Route, we forge forward directly into the heart of the city! Oh, my. The main highway (US 285 or something like that) is completely destroyed leaving only very narrow lanes with serious potholes, bumps, and other obstacles. Randomly, we head south (big mistake) until we get out of the construction and can finally pull over - at the Wal Mart.

Electing to see if we could check in early, we call the campground to be told, "Sure! See you when you get here!" and then, upon being told we were at the Wal Mart, she cheerfully said, "OK. See you in 25 minutes!" Battling our way back north via the only route we know, we finally get out of the construction to find the rest of our 15 minute drive really easy.

The Carlsbad KOA was easy to find and very easy to check into. We were immediately greeted by Abby, a very large dog, and 3 of the staff. They showed us a map with the area attractions and recommended we head up to Artesia just to see the town. This site provides BBQ delivery to your campsite every night and had hot breakfast available on weekends. It also has a pool, hot tub, pet park, dog exercise equipment, and tons of other stuff. But, it did have large night lights and the sites are feet apart - not several yards like we prefer. However, this was our very first KOA campground (in fact, our first non-Texas state park campground) for our Rockwood PopUp Tent Camper.

This will be a hard campground to rate since it's our first KOA AND it is considered to be one of the best campground in New Mexico AND it is rated among the highest KOA campgrounds in the country. So, we liked it but we won't say if it's better than tripping along the campgrounds in the canyons in Palo Duro or Big Bend.

Turns out this post is mostly about the journey to the KOA and the campground itself. Oh, well. Then it should give you incentive to come back and read about the real adventures!!!!!

Coming up:
Our Carlsbad Cavern experience including great lunches at Rosas Mexican in Carlsbad
Our side trip to The Wellhead Pub in Artesia
Our visit to one great state park, Living Desert State Park and Zoo
Our visit to Guadalupe Mountains State Park (back in Texas for a bit)

Also, don't miss any of these because you won't want to wonder why and how my Sweetie and the amazing Tarantula Hawk became a part of modern culture!