Between here and San Antonio

[John Kasaian]

It appears I'll have to attend a convention in San Antonio in a few months:cool:. The car situation is fixed so the likelihood is I'll be driving which means the 8x10 (or at least 5x7) can come along. It looks like I-10 is most direct route but I'd like to do a little exploring on the blue highways either on the way or returning. I've got an ordinary sedan so lamentably no off roading:(
Are there any photo ops between LA and San Antonio that you recommend I check out?

[Martin Miller]

It appears I'll have to attend a convention in San Antonio in a few months:cool:. The car situation is fixed so the likelihood is I'll be driving which means the 8x10 (or at least 5x7) can come along. It looks like I-10 is most direct route but I'd like to do a little exploring on the blue highways either on the way or returning. I've got an ordinary sedan so lamentably no off roading:(
Are there any photo ops between LA and San Antonio that you recommend I check out?

If you can manage a side trip to Big Bend National Park, I doubt that you will regret it.

Have fun, Martin

[Heespharm]

Pipe organ cactus desert, tombstone, big bend... I've made the trip and just the trip on i10 through Texas will give you lots of target rich environments

[David Lobato]

Take Hwy 90 instead of I-10 in Texas. Don't miss Marfa, Alpine, Big Bend, Langtry (Judge Roy Bean visitor center), Bridge over the Pecos River, Lake Amistad, and Del Rio. Further east and north of Hwy 90 are Lost Maples State Park, and Garner State Park, don't miss these.

[Bill Suderman]

John, check this place, there are rock formations found no where else and it's just south of rt. 10 one the New Mexico/Arizona border. https://www.google.com/search?q=chiricahua+national+park&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=fVRPVfi9PMXUoATprYDoCQ&ved=0CEkQsAQ&biw=1240&bih=618

Also stop at Stein, NM, just a few miles east of the above national park.

Check weather, you will be traveling in the summer and temps will be up (like where you live). Take lots of water.
Have a great trip,
Bill

[Bruce Watson]

Are there any photo ops between LA and San Antonio that you recommend I check out?

More than you can count.

Lots of people are recommending Big Bend NP, which is my least favorite NP. I suggest instead a more northern route, picking up Joshua Tree NP, Sedona, Petrified Forest, Canyon De Chelly NM, etc.

If you go the southern route, Organ Pipe Cactus NM and Saguaro NP are excellent, as is White Sands NM in New Mexico.

Really, pick a route and keep your eyes open. The south-west is an extremely target rich environment for most LFers.

[tgtaylor]

The Old Spanish Trail: http://www.oldspanishtrail.org/learn/explore.php

Thomas

[bigdog]

All of the above, plus:

San Xavier del Bac, just south of Tucson
Fort Davis, TX
Monahans Sandhills State Park (Texas)
The Spanish missions in El Paso and in San Antonio.

[thomasfallon]

I second Monahans Sandhills. Also Hueco Tanks. White Sands National Monument, if you can work that in. San Antonio Missions. Texas Hill Country. Luckenbach, TX, Route 66. Texas Canyon (in NM). I-8 is a lot more scenic than I-10.

[Bruce Schultz]

Bruce,
Why is Big Bend your least fav? I have to admit, I've been there so many times I don't need to return but I'm curious what turned you off about it? I can remember going there when few people would be there, but now its infested with casual types who just make a 1-2 day trip of it and move on. Not trying to start a dustup but wondered why you're down on it. I know for some people, desert just isn't their thing, and it is depressing to think that BB once was lush before overgrazing eliminated much of the vegetation.

Bruce

[Bruce Schultz]

Sorry to hijack the thread.
Guadalupe National Park north of Van Horn is quite remote with some interesting seldom-visited gypsum sand dunes on the west side of the mountains in the flats. But beware of the high winds that hit the area. There's a reason why there's continuous wind turbines about 40 miles along the ridges from Van Horn to the park.

[Bruce Watson]

Bruce,
Why is Big Bend your least fav? I have to admit, I've been there so many times I don't need to return but I'm curious what turned you off about it?

That's sort of like trying to explain your least favorite color. :confused:

Probably my dislike for Big Bend NP is that there's so little there there. It's not quite a desert, not quite enough rain to grow anything interesting, so it's a scrub land. I also had scale problems with it. Nothing really big, nothing really small, but a huge amount of mid scale stuff that didn't feel right to me, like it was trying to be something it's not. It basically couldn't grab my attention. I've been to most of the national parks, and BB is the only one that I couldn't make any kind of connection to. "Nothing to see here, move along."

That said, BBNP is unique. I don't know of anything else like it in the national park system, and I've been to most of the parks / monuments. And the fact that I don't connect to it doesn't mean that anyone else will have that trouble.

The OP asked for sights more or less along his route. I'm just saying that I think there's a lot of interesting things for him to see and/or shoot, and BBNP is at the bottom of that list, for me.

[Alan Curtis]

John
If you take the southern route, I recommend The Organ Mountain area east of Las Cruces, White Sands and the Sacramento Mountains east of Alamorgordo. There are some very nice aspen groves near Cloudcroft. This area might be a welcome temperature relief if your trip is in the summer. White Sands should not be missed.

[John Jarosz]

The south-west is an extremely target rich environment for most LFers.

True. But distances are very misleading in Texas. Things are very far apart there and there is usually nothing in between. Realistically plan your driving schedule. If you are not on the interstate it seems to take longer to get places than you expect.

While Big Bend NP is very cool, I found the photographic opportunities to be uninspiring. And I'm someone who likes minimalistic landscapes. If you do go, hope for skies that give you direct sun. When it's fully clouded over (what I got) it's not really worth the trip. Direct sunlight could help a lot.

And BBNP is close to nothing else. Unless you want to buy bottled water or cans of pop, there's really nothing where you can re-supply. Bring everything you think you'll need.

And did I mention about the large distances between locales that have civilization?

Two lane roads: Texas is unique in my experience that has 75MPH speed limits on narrow two lane roads that seem to carry every open body dump truck ever made. And they really do go 75-80 MPH on those roads.

"in a few months" will make it July or August. It gets unspeakably hot in BBNP. So hot that many of the services in the park are shut down then because no one goes there in the heat of summer. BBNP is much better in March or April.

[John Kasaian]

Thanks, all! It seems like this will need a dedicated photo trip:cool: