Winter Road Trip 2026

Bend Oregon to Big Bend National Park Texas

And back to Bend Oregon...

Part Two - Yuma AZ to Alpine TX

Day 12-13  Oregon Pipe Cactus National Monument

With all the fun we were having in Yuma, it was kind of hard to hitch up and hit the road again, but AWAY WE GO!!!  We headed east towards Tuscon and made a righty tighty at Gila Bend and made our way south on Hwy 85 to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Wow, nice drive, off the freeway, through Desert, with Cactus, and holy cow this is NOT the northwest high desert that we are used too!! We turned into the park and made the mile'ish drive into the campground and were greeted right away with a fantastic view overlooking miles and miles of the valley, the Mexican border (including the big red wall), and did I mention before,,,, CACTUS! We had chosen a campsite down towards the bottom of the campground so that would not have many RV's in front of us, and it was a MOST AWESOME site and view!!!!! If you visit here make sure you hike the trail to the ridge above camp at sunset, you will NOT be disappointed!!!!  Monday we got up and spent the day driving the Ajo Mountain Loop road and enjoyed the peaceful and scenic day. This actually marked the first time our new truck had ever journeyed very far off the paved roads, so kind of virgin trip for it. A little dust never hurt anything, but we did hit the car wash on the way to Kartchner Caverns the next day (no looking dirty other than the bugs on the front of the trailer for us!).

Day 14 - 16  Benson AZ: Kartchner Caverns

Organ Pipe Cactus was another one of those places that we could have stayed longer, but schedules Yadda Yadda... So away we go north a little to Why AZ and again, hang a righty tighty and head towards Tuscon on Hwy 86. Although it was nice to be off the freeway, this was a rather tight road and more traffic then you would think. Big thing was the amount of Border Security vehicles there were. Everything from trucks, cars, on foot and even motorcycles were combing the desert for the Wascally Wabits crossing the border heading north. I guess we did not look very threatening as every check stop let us continue without having Jill get out and frisk her. Our goal today was stopping in Tuscon to get a plug to wire in the new TPMS system we bought in Quartzsite for the trailer. TPMS you ask??? Kinda sounds like a female medical problem right??? But no, it stands for "Tire Pressure Monitoring System". It lets us watch the tire pressures on the trailer so we can act, rather than re-act if there happens to be a problem. If your not watching the readout it will scare the heck out of you if you have a tire that goes below your pre determined pressures, not sure what the sound or noise level is, but do not want to ever find out. So anyway, that task was taken care of and we were soon making another "righty tighty" on Hwy 90 for about 10 miles to Kartchner Caverns. This is another one of our "Must See" stops, and it did not disappoint!!! 

Kartchner Caverns is just a magical kind of place. Between the story of discovery, the secrecy of keeping the cavern undiscovered, to the efforts in keeping it pristine while making it accessible, and even now the efforts to keep it that way are amazing. We did the Big Room tour first thing in the morning, then the Rotunda/Throne Tour in the afternoon, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire day! We stayed right there at the campground, so we had to make reservations quite a bit in advance as this place is very popular, and we see why as it is a GREAT place to park the rig for a couple days! The only downside of touring the caverns is you can't take any electronics (phones) into the caves, so no pictures for us!

Next day we did the side trip to Tombstone. How can you be this close (40ish miles) and not go to the source of so many western stories, history, movies, folklore etc. and not visit Tombstone? We were there early like all us retired old folks do, and found that despite morning shootouts of the past, this place sleeps until at least 10am now a days... So we walked the deserted streets peaking in the windows and waiting until our turn to watch good ole Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp take out those poor smart ass beer drinkers in front of the OK Corral. We were hoping to see a new version of history, but once again as the smoke and dust cleared, Doc and Wyatt had scored their victory again and the show was over... All kidding aside, Tombstone really was a let down and it is now nothing more than a few saloons (we don't drink so they looked cool but of no interest) and a bunch of gift shops selling Chinese versions of the old west. Oh well, back to the Caverns and get ready to head east the next morning.

(OK Already, take the pic!!!)

Day 17 - 19 - Las Cruces NM - Hacienda RV Resort - White Sands NP & Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

After staying at the wonderful AZ State Parks, we decided to change things up a bit and home base in Las Cruces NM. We did a few side trips rather than drag the box on wheels all over the place. Hacienda RV Resort was recommended to us so why not? WOW, nice place, a little close to the freeway but very nice otherwise! First night they had a resort wide soup dinner where inmates (ok other box draggers) all pitched in and had a communal dinner in their clubhouse. As we checked in rather late, we were told that we did not have to make a contribution to the soup display, just show up and have fun! AWESOME, like 15 different varieties of soup, sour dough dinner rolls, drinks, pop, water etc. all were on display. Friendly people and FREE FOOD, what could be better for a retired couple on the road??? So of course you were supposed to vote for your favorite, so that meant we had to try all 15 varieties right? BURP..... Anyway it was a big surprise and we enjoyed the heck out of it! After dinner the younger crowd gathered and did a karaoke thing which we enjoyed watching for about an hour and then the ears said they had heard enough and we went back to the trailer and actually watched a little tv, as they had cable tv at each site. Wow we are living high on the hog now......

So the next morning we hit the road bright and early, leaving the box on wheels at the park, and headed NE to White Sands National Park. We had heard a lot about this place prior to this trip and it was again, a "Must Visit" location! After spending some time at the visitors center we entered the park. So this is a good time to bring up the National Park Geezer Pass which gives us old Geezers FREE admission to all National Parks, and half price camping as well. It's called the America The Beautiful pass and it is available for about $80 bucks for a lifetime subscription. If you are a qualifier for the Geezer Pass, by all means spend the 80 bucks and get one. It has paid for itself more times than we can count! Anyway, it was a pleasure to just smile into the camera and hold up the pass and drive right through!!! It takes a little bit but eventually you drive into nothing but White Sand everywhere. For us from the winter snow region, I was ready to put on chains as it felt like we had entered the snow zone. What the heck, we left for sun, not snow! Anyway, lots of white, which created some great photo oops which we did take advantage of. Weather was sunny with some high clouds but it was cold, upper 30's with a little wind. After a few hours at White Sands, we headed north past Tularosa to Three Rivers Petroglyph site. This is a BLM managed area (which the Geezer Pass worked again) that is home to over 21,000 prehistoric Jornada Mogollon rock art petroglyphs.The coolest part of this place is you can freely walk all around them, no fences or anything. They seem to just keep on going forever! Way cool place, and another one of our "Thumbs Up" recommendations!!!

So after hitting the Farmers Market in Las Cruses we decided to spend our last day restocking the groceries and doing some laundry before heading towards Alpine Texas. Of course while you wait for the new and improved debit card eating laundry machines, you really should laze in and around the hot tub on a mid 70's day right? Well of course there will always be a few more Geezers soaking with you, and of course the said topic of box dragging Geezers in a hot tub is "Where did you stay last, and where are you going next"? Well for most, their stays are like a month at a time here and there, and they all thought we were nutz for keeping on the move like we do, but hey whatever floats your boat.... But you do get some ideas of areas to put on the "maybe" list for your next trip. 

Day 20 - Alpine Texas

Not much to say about Alpine other than it is a pretty small town, but the stopping point before heading directly south into Big Bend National Park. We stayed at The Lost Alaskan RV park for the night, not much, and really can't recommend it to anyone other than it's a good proximity to Big Bend and a good way to charge everything, empty the tanks, and load up on water because Big Bend has no hookups. What??? No hookups for 7 days? for seven, SEVEN, uh SEVEN FULL DAYS.... HUH???? OH MY GOD NO HOOKUPS???? WE'RE GONNA DIE!!! Hah, this is a good time to mention that we have 800 watts of solar panels on the roof, 200 watts of portable solar panel, 990Ah LiFePo4 Batteries in our pass through, and a 2000w Jackery portable power unit for anything not 12 volts (coffee maker & microwave). In other words, CHILL as this is NO PROBLEM!!!. 

Keep on clicking folks as we have not even made it half way through our trip yet! 
Next is Part Three for those not keeping track!