By the end of this trip, we will be world experts in getting changed without getting naked. Definitely recommend picking up this life skill – it’s pretty essential when you’re backpacking like this, but who knows, maybe soon you’d be whipping on a change of clothes in the office, at parties, or on the train…

At this stage in our journey, we could already see a pattern emerging; this country, in its sheer vastness, is an ocean of scrubland, dotted with dumbfounding islands of beauty. One of these islands came in the form of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, on the route from El Paso to Carlsbad. This rocky outcrop loomed over us on route 62, beckoning us to explore it.

The road to Guadalupe Mountains

El Capitan, Guadalupe Mountains

Their campsite was unfortunately full that night, so we continued onwards with the intention to return the next day.

We slept, instead, at Washington Ranch, where we were greeted by a herd of deer (as well as the howls of what we can only assume were coyotes).

Unbelievably, the bathrooms had combination locks on the doors, presumably to protect them from toilet opportunists (despite being a hundred miles from the nearest glimpse of civilisation). A security tip for our friends at Washington Ranch: spending hundreds of dollars on a fancy lock is useless if your combination is 1111.Waking up to the sound of birdcall is part of the appeal of camping. Waking up, however, surrounded by a posse of turkeys, is something else, as we discovered the next morning.

A more graceful flock met us at the mouth of Carlsbad Caverns, which was swirling with cave swallows as we arrived.

We were quickly plunged into darkness as we walked down into the caves; artistically placed lighting guided us through them and made the stalagmites and stalactites glow like a fairytale grotto.

Somehow, I didn’t expect us to be journeying so deep into the earth; I more expected a horizontal track into the side of a mountain. Instead, we trekked a full 1000 feet below ground (as well as back up, of course). Usually there are lifts to the bottom which would have required significantly less effort, but that walk down is unmissable; we got a real sense of the limitlessness of the caverns. Three hours of walking later, we saw sunlight again!