{"id":2455738,"date":"2014-06-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/uncategorized\/southwestern-ghost-tour\/"},"modified":"2021-06-30T00:59:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T00:59:22","slug":"southwestern-ghost-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/adventure-travel\/destinations\/southwestern-ghost-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwestern Ghost Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Explore the biggest, starkest landscapes in the country on this 950-mile, ten-day adventure.<\/p>\n

Packing list<\/strong>: Headlamps, plenty of water, Cormac McCarthy books on tape\u00a0<\/p>\n

Highlights<\/strong>: Head 20 miles east from Las Cruces to hike around\u2014or climb\u20141,800-foot Sugarloaf (a multipitch 5.6) in the Organ Mountains. Then drive northeast to the 275-square-mile gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument<\/a> and camp under the stars at one of ten primitive sites ($3).<\/p>\n

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(Ben Sklar)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Head southeast and explore the 119 known limestone caves of Carlsbad Caverns<\/a> ($10) before driving on to Marathon, Texas, to splurge on a newly renovated room and a quail dinner at the Gage Hotel<\/a> (from $109).<\/p>\n

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(Jill Richards)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Lajitas, put in for a three-day guided paddle<\/a> on the Rio Grande through the sheer 1,500-foot limestone walls of Santa Elena Canyon and Class IV Rock Slide Rapids ($475). Shuttle back to Lajitas and head west to Big Bend Ranch State Park to mountain-bike perhaps the most underutilized 238 miles of hiking and mountain-biking trails in the nation.<\/p>\n

Time the trip through the town \u2028of Marfa to camp out at the Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love<\/a>, headlined last year by M. Ward (September 25\u201328), then bomb through Davis to the McDonald Observatory<\/a> for a final look at the Southwestern sky ($12).<\/p>\n

Detour<\/strong>: Peel off at Artesia and drive 41 miles north to Roswell, the extraterrestrial capital of the universe, to visit the International UFO Museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The route.<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a lonely road from Las Cruces, New Mexico, through West Texas, but very much worth it. Just a few reasons why: surreal white sand dunes, a massive network of caves, and mountain biking trails all to yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1647911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"uuid":"a6bad5ffd9b2874786016fa5cc56fd72","footnotes":""},"categories":[2569],"tags":[2594,2625,2640,2634,2945,2654,2613,2961],"byline":[50],"ad_cat":[],"legacy-category":[],"class_list":["post-2455738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","tag-biking","tag-caving-and-canyoneering","tag-climbing","tag-hiking-and-backpacking","tag-new-mexico","tag-road-trips","tag-running","tag-texas","byline-stephanie-pearson"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Southwestern Ghost Tour","url":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/adventure-travel\/destinations\/southwestern-ghost-tour\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/adventure-travel\/destinations\/southwestern-ghost-tour\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migrated-images_parent\/migrated-images_63\/ghost-tour_h.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migrated-images_parent\/migrated-images_63\/ghost-tour_h.jpg"},"articleSection":"Destinations","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"sperkins-pom"}],"creator":["sperkins-pom"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online","logo":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/favicon-194x194-1.png"},"keywords":["biking","caving and canyoneering","climbing","hiking and backpacking","new mexico","road trips","running","texas"],"dateCreated":"2014-06-16T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2014-06-16T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2021-06-30T00:59:22Z"},"rendered":"