Monday Sept. 21 Van Horn to Lamesa (259 miles)
Map Day 5 Van Horn to Lamesa via Carlsbad Caverns
Today is day 5 of our Big Bend and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks motorcycle ride. Come follow along and enjoy the scenery and ride.
Our Biker Babes with El Capitan Mtn. in background at Guadalupe Mountains National Park
We got an early start and headed up Hwy 54 from Van Horn to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This road was in the words of Janet “an awesome road”. The scenery was incredible. We stopped at a picnic area to take pictures of El Capitan the highest peak (8749’) in Texas. From the headquarters we walked a nature trail to some ruins of what once was a “Butterfield Stage Stop”
Carlsbad Caverns National Park Natural Entrance
From there we rode on to Carlsbad Cavern National Park and did a self guided tour of the cavern. Janet and I had been there in the early nineties but forgot the road to the cavern was so pretty… Again, a nice motorcycle road. We spent about 4 hours at the cavern. After the tour we ate lunch at the caverns.The food was great and the cost reasonable. I also found out once you turn 62 (yeah, I’m that old) for $10 you can get a lifetime pass to all national parks. With this pass you get to bring 3 other people with you. So now we need to start looking at going to more national parks… Free is good.
Leaving Carlsbad Caverns National Park
From there we rode on to Lamesa, Texas. This was the only day it had got hot. I think it was Hobbs, New Mexico on one of the bank signs the temperature read 98 degrees. It wasn’t too bad (dry heat) compared to some of the heat we had just had back home in Georgetown.
Today was another good riding day. The temperature started cool gradually warming to hot but all in all it was a good day… Great scenery riding with great friends. Lamesa was nice trails end.
Tomorrow we head to San Angelo, Texas. Come ride along and share the fun with us.
Below are links to the other days of this ride.
- Big Bend and Carlsbad National Parks Motorcycle Ride
- Day 1 Thursday Sept. 17 Georgetown to Junction (271 miles)
- Day 2 Friday Sept. 18 Junction to Marathon (258 miles)
- Day 3 Saturday Sept. 19 Marathon to Chisos Basin Lodge (66 miles)
- Day 4 Sunday Sept. 20 Chisos Basin Lodge to Van Horn (234 miles)
- Day 6 Tuesday Sept. 22 Lamesa to San Angelo (231 miles)
- Day 7 Wednesday Sept. 23 San Angelo to Georgetown (199 miles)
If you are thinking about riding to the Big Bend area, checkout the links below. The links have valuable information on the Big Bend Area of Texas and tips we have learned about long motorcycle rides over the years.
If you enjoyed reading about this motorcycle ride to Big Bend National Park you may like our other motorcycle rides there too.
- Our first motorcycle ride to Big Bend National Park
- Spring motorcycle ride to Big Bend National Park April 2007
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Have Goldwing Will Travel… I hope we see you down the road somewhere.