One of the delights of traveling for us is to find hidden gems along the way. Most of the time these gems have been spots of beauty in the midst of dusty, rocky areas. Wonder what we mean? Here are some of our highlights. First a sunrise at Galveston; looks like God is reaching out to us from the heavens.
Along the gulf coast, in Galveston we stayed in the Dellanera RV Park right on the water. Walking on the beach and seeing the beauty of the sun on the water calmed my soul.
When we left the gulf coast at the tip of Texas at Brownsville, we started following the Rio Grande River and were in dry, dusty areas instead of the lushness of the gulf. Our first stop was at Lake Casa Blanca Intl. State Park just outside of Laredo. This was our first campsite where we were in the dirt.
campsite 
landscape
But we saw these beautiful flowering cactus along the road at the park. Their beauty was so much more apparent because of the landscape.
As we kept driving along the Rio Grande, our next stop was outside of Del Rio at Seminole Canyon State Park. The land was dry with few plants, but as we took a hike along the canyon walls, we came across this field full of so many yellow flowers that we just stopped and admired their beauty.
Then we came to Big Bend National Park and stayed at Study Butte RV Park in Terlinga just outside of the park’s entrance. Here the land was really dry, rocky, and dusty.
Barney welcoming us 
site after site after site
our site 
close up of ground
But the sunsets we saw here were absolutely beautiful. We’ve never seen such skies.
We got such a show of God’s love of beauty and variety with these sunsets night after night.
Big Bend National Park covers 1252 square miles of ground and is known for its volcanic mountains, desert lands, and arroyos. It’s dry there and few people come to visit during the summer because of the heat.
Santa Elena Canyon with the Rio Grande 
Mexico on left, U.S. on right
The land was stark and magnificent, but we were really surprised when we went driving to the west side of the park and found this oasis, Lajitas Golf Resort.
historic hotel 
main street
walkway to restaurants 
outside seating
fountain outside of restaurant 
center area
We drank in the beauty of this oasis in the desert after our days in dry, dusty Big Bend Natl. Park and Terlinga.
After finishing our drive along Rio Grande to El Paso, we drove across New Mexico and spent the night in Tucson in the parking lot of a casino. Doesn’t sound like a gem, right? But we walked over to the pool and sat outside drinking our iced teas from the Starbucks inside.
Our next stop, after a weekend in Las Vegas for a granddaughter’s soccer tournament, was Death Valley just inside California. Again we were in a dry, dusty campground.
a flat, open area with bathrooms 
sunset view of mountains
So when we found the Ranch at Death Valley across the road from our campground and this outside patio, we settled in most afternoons to drink our iced tea and enjoy life.
After being in Death Valley where we didn’t have hookups so couldn’t use air conditioner at night, we were ready for a “prettier” place to stay. We found it at Lone Pine at Boulder Creek RV Park.
Just outside of Lone Pine is the Alabama Hills, the backdrop for many of the movies and TV shows we enjoyed as children. While the area was bleak, our overnight in the hills gave us this daytime view and beautiful sunrise.
We kept driving north along Hwy. 395, and just north of Mammoth, we came across Convict Lake.
On our return half of our southwest trip, the 2 gems I saw that made me say “Ah!” were at Westcliffe, Colorado, in the southern part of the Rocky Mountains:
and at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park on the east side of the Mississippi River:
Hope you enjoyed our “gems” while on our southwest swing trip. We’re looking forward to seeing many more as we travel the U.S.
