Balmorhea Ants and Bats

After leaving Poncho Villa State Park in New Mexico it was a quick and painless drive into and through El Paso, TX where we refueled and continued driving South-East all the way to Van Horn, TX. This made for a 200-mile day of driving although it felt like much less. Mom and I realized that Texas miles must be shorter as we sure felt like we were going through them at a faster rate then other states.

We stayed the night at a Truck stop near Van Horn and were moving again first thing in the morning to Balmorhea State Park another 60 miles East where we paid the excessive fee of $28 to camp in a State Park for a single night. There is a huge natural spring (not hot spring) pool here which must attract hundreds of people on certain weekends of the year, but today we shared the entire place with only a dozen other campers.

At first sight this park looks like a great place to hang for a day or two, but we soon began to feel ripped off. The bathrooms had no hot water, so while we had to option of a shower, only a cold shower was available. The entire park is very unkempt with daily routine stuff clearly being ignored for years. And the entire park is apparently set on top of the worlds largest fire-ant colony.

What made it worthwhile was the sunset, which not only brought some very cool cloud formation, but also released the bats that sleep in the picnic table overhangs of each camp. Thousands of bats came out just at the moment of the sun setting… both creepy and cool at the same time. It was then that I remembered that this is the time of the season that the bats do their thing at Carlsbad Caverns where there would be millions of bats exiting the cave each night. We are so close to the Caverns, but I will miss it again for the 2nd time this year.