Pine Springs

Next stop, Pine Springs Campground in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Guadalupe Mountains is Texas' other national park, Big Bend being the more well-known and popular one. Pine Springs is the campground within it. As the friendly and informative park host told us on our way in, it's just a parking lot. But what a parking lot! It has multiple trailheads leading from it, all leading upward. Some of the trails can be quite strenuous. For instance, you can hike to Guadalupe Peak, which is the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet. This trail is 8.5 miles long, round-trip, and includes 3,000 feet elevation gain, making the estimated duration 6–10 hours depending on your skill and fitness. We were only there overnight, so no hiking this time.

Trail to the "Top of Texas." Image courtesy of the National Park Service.

Pine Springs was our first time boondocking (no connections for electricity, water, or sewer). Couple that with it being winter at one of the highest elevations we'd be driving through, expected poor cellular service, the nearest fuel 50 miles away in Carlsbad, NM, and, well, let's just say this was the day we felt least confident about during our pre-trip planning.

As it turned out, our worries were misplaced. The weather was sunny, the roads clear and dry, and the campground well-populated. We had fueled up at a truckstop in Carlsbad so we had plenty enough diesel to at least get us to El Paso, 100 miles away, where we were sure to find more. Also, our Alde hydronic, convective heating system kept us cozy all night long running on less propane than we would have guessed. The one startling thing was when our Airstream shut down the TV and DVD player about 10 minutes into a movie because it said our battery voltage was too low. Granted, I didn't check the electrical draw of either device before firing up the movie. I was feeling a bit experimental and couldn't think of much else we'd need the electrical system for that night so I thought I'd give it a try. When I acknowledged the warning on the C-Zone system monitoring and control panel, I noted that the battery still read nearly 12.5 volts. With our two 12-volt AGM batteries, I thought we shouldn't have had to worry until it approached 11 volts. Then again, I don't know much (yet) about electrical systems, so we trusted the Airstream algorithm and conserved for the rest of the night.

What a parking lot!