From here it's only about one hour more driving time to the White Mountain Wilderness in NM than to Big Bend or Guadalupe. Since there's no entry fee in the wilderness, you can camp where you want, you don't have to pack water, you can have a camp fire, and it's in the Rocky Mountains, I'm more likely to spend my camping time there.
Texas has a lot of cool stuff to see. But what inspires me to run all year long, spend hours on a stair-master, and keep my weight down is planning a couple of backpacking trips to the Rocky Mountains every year.
