You know those romantic things people say about the South West? How the color palette is so wonderful, the sunsets so pink and dry air is wildly inviting.....

It's all true.

I now understand why so many people retire to Arizona.

I had to choose between White Sands and the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Carlsbad won due to logistics. White Sands is 3-4 hours out of the way if you are coming from Austin, Texas and want to make it up through Arizona in three days. When road tripping it is important to map out your desitinations first.

It is as large as a city down there!

We marched into the dark knowing very little about what we were to encounter. Luckily, once inside the paths are lit to help lead the way. It was a little creepy being in such deep darkness.

We stood amazed at the vast rock formations in sheer admiration of mother nature. Once inside we decided to ponder through to the Big Room. At it's deepest point, visitors are 79 stories underground!

We gave ourselves a day to adventure. We took the natural entrance in then elevator-ed out of there.

Cost wise the tickets for the park were only $10. We were happy to do the self-guided tour. On the other hand, finding an affordable hotel was the worst!

If you decide to visit there, I would use credit card points or watch hotel deals. It's my suspicion that the caverns are a big draw for the area and hotel prices don't fluctuate that often... Darn the supply and demand of economics!

We stayed at the Motel 6.