Living Desert Zoo & Gardens, NM
If you’re ever close to Carlsbad, New Mexico, make sure to plan a visit to the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens! All of the animals are either rescued or have been born into captivity so they cannot be released. What makes this place so neat is the fact that ALL the animals & plants are native to North America’s largest desert, the Chihuahuan Desert. You can find elk, bison, javelin, bobcats, Mexican wolves, roadrunners, eagles, hawks & more!
Big Bend National Park, TX
The first stop on our 2 month trip took us almost 2,000 miles and 20 hours away from Alabama to Big Bend National Park in Texas! First of all, if you’re looking for a place to view the Milky Way Galaxy clearly, this is one of the 10 places in the US you still can! Well, when there isn’t any cloud cover rolling in that is… sigh. We met an awesome family vacationing from Tennessee at the RV park we stayed at (Stillwell Store RV Park & Hallie’s Hall of Fame) that invited us to ride with them down the road towards Mexico to stargaze and although we weren’t able to 100% clearly see the Milky Way, you could see the remnants of it and we were able to view more stars than I have ever seen in my life! It was absolutely gorgeous and the reason we chose Big Bend. We all laid in the middle of the road (which was basically abandoned since it dead ends right before the Mexico border) watching the sky and luckily I had my free SkyView app to show us all the constellations and planets, which they thoroughly enjoyed! While we we’re there we saw 5 javelin, 2 mule deer, tons of road runners & jack rabbits & got barked at by the cutest prairie dogs! I highly recommend Stillwell RV!
Now to the park!
KaDoHa Indian Village, AR
KaDoHa Indian Village was a pretty neat tourist attraction we stopped by after we left from digging at Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas! You can purchase a bucket to wet sift through to get various gems and stones and even a small diamond! They offer a self guided walking tour that begins inside, showing the life of early native Americans from clothing and jewelry to tools and village set ups, then continues outside where you can view remains as well as pottery and jewelry that archeologists have uncovered and left on display along with detailed signage describing each one. The tour then ends at a plowed field at the bottom of a mound that you’re allowed to surface search. We found multiple pieces of pottery fragments as well as a couple cool stones then headed to buy our bucket to find a few more goodies! If you have a chance I highly recommend stopping by for a visit! They also have some beautiful pieces of slag you can purchase, but so does everyone else around Crater of Diamonds.
Have you ever been to KaDoHa Indian Village? We’d love to hear about your trip!
Daisy State Park, AR
While we were vacationing in Arkansas to dig for gems at the Crater of Diamonds, we tent camped at Daisy State Park about 30 minutes away. This State Park may be a little on the smaller side but it’s beauty more than makes up for it! We mainly chose it because it’s on Lake Greeson & our tent site was right on the water, which we love because we brought our canoe!
The staff were all super friendly & the park ranger had to rescue our canoe that decided to drift off while we were at Crater of Diamonds lol. You’ve got to watch out for that rising water if you for some reason decide not to tie your water vessel up (insert eye rolling & laughing emoji here). They have RV sites, tent sites & even 2 yurts that we were drooling over!
Daisy SP has some fun activities, beautiful view, fishing, kayaking, lake swimming & walking trails! We highly recommend staying here!
One thing we will note is make sure you put up all food & shiny objects before you leave. We came back one day to find some crows tearing though our pop up aluminum foil sheets & a new pack of face wipes while a gluttonous squirrel that got into, and ate, a whole bag of 1000 grand mini candy bars of ours was so stuffed that it was lying completely sprawled out on the concrete edging of our site and could barely move when we pulled up. It was hilarious.
If you visit, make sure to stop in to SweetPea’s for a bite to eat! It’s a super adorable place with friendly staff & some tasty food! The menu is on the wall & you just tell them what you want at the window then have a seat & wait on the deliciousness to be served up!
All & all it was a great trip & we highly recommend staying at Daisy State Park!
Crater of Diamonds State Park, AR
First off, y’all, the struggle in 100 degree weather, plus no shade, to get a good picture in front of the park sign with the camera timer turned on was crazy so we did one take & headed on our way into the park! I may should have checked the quality before we left headed back to Alabama! HAHAHA So here’s this gem for your enjoyment ↓↓↓↓↓↓
Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas was one of the first parks we knew we wanted to visit this year! I mean, who doesn’t want to say they dug up a diamond with their own hands?! The park is a total of 911 acres with 37.5 acres of plowed fields you can dig or surface search & is the only diamond bearing site open to the public. Lucky “miners” have been discovering diamonds since 1906 & one of the days we were there 2 diamonds (1 yellow & 1 white) were found by just walking around surface searching! Most diamonds are found while surface searching (after a good rain or being plowed) or digging pits at least 6-10ft deep!
There are a lot of neat gems you can discover besides diamonds: Agate, Jasper, Amethyst, Lamproite, Mica, Barite, Quartz, Calcite, Sandstone, Conglomerate & Volcanic Tuff. We were able to find all of these, minus Amethyst & unfortunately Diamonds but had a blast digging none the less! There is also a pretty awesome little “water park” on site (make sure you check the operation dates for it as it’s seasonal) & the park also offers a demonstration on using the sifting equipment for newbies on the grass before the field, which we found extremely helpful as well as a video on loop about the park!
(short video showing the dry sifting process above ^^^)
Being first timers, I went online to see what all we would need for the trip only to come up VERY short, which was strange considering how awesome the park is so below you will find a list of what (in my opinion) you SHOULD bring to make the trip more enjoyable! They do offer rental equipment on site & if you’re only going to be a day I would suggest just renting from them or simply surface searching if they have plowed recently (you can call & find out the last time they plowed).
(Crater of Diamonds Mining Field ^^^)
Necessities for Crater of Diamonds NP:
*Chair
*A LOT of water
*Shovel
*Tweezers ( for picking up small gems in dirt without losing them)
*5 gallon bucket (you can carry 5lbs of sifted material home each day to better search through)
*Some kind of wagon because you will get tired of carrying everything back & forth
*Snacks
*Shoes that can get dirty &/or wet, or sandals if you’re not the one operating the shovel
*Sifting kit online if you plan to wet or dry sift multiple days
*SUNSCREEN or a long sleeve shirt & wide brim hat depending on the season
*Small magnifying glass
*Ziplock bag
Overall this was an awesome trip we really enjoyed & can’t wait to go back! We’d love to hear if you’ve been & what all treasures you found!
Nomadic Wanderers 