Carlsbad Caverns — BearTrex

Carlsbad Caverns was a fascinating stop. It was kind of like going to a museum except that no one took the beautiful pieces and moved them. I got to the caverns later in the day and missed the time slot for doing the full walk down to the main cavern. Well, let me tell you, I am not sorry that I was six minutes late because the caverns themselves were a huge amount of walking and I think the extra mile and a half walk would possibly have killed me! Haha, of course, that's an exageration (who me?) but walking the cavern was quite the workout itself. It was well over a mile of walking and much of it was uphill. OK, so the literature says that it is relatively flat, but I am here to report that the literature lies!!! But of course, the beauty made up for it.

There is not too much that I can write other than to show you pictures and wonder what it must have been like less than 100 years ago to have discovered this natural phenomenon. The caverns are, well, cavernous. Huge heights, huge depths, formations hanging like chandeliers from the ceiling, growing like sculptures out of the ground, and trickles becoming curtains hanging from walls without windows (those side formations are actually called Draperies).

If you want to have fun, see if you can spot some of the faces in the formations. Or, can you tell which little section was called the Dolls House? How about the Indian Chief? I am quite sure you will recognize the formation called the Lion's Tale. I walked up to one of the smaller sections and immediately laughed and said it looked like Asian figures. I pictured the scenes from the movie The King and I where they did the mini play of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Guess what that section was called...The Chinese Theatre. My favorite was the one that looks like a Walrus to me. They had some other fancy name, but to me, it's a Walrus. I pulled that was out separately from the others because it makes me giggle! Can you see him? I also see the pre-historic beginnings of tribal tattoos... do you?

Interesting note on all these pics... for the most part, they are all taken without a flash. I have found that the iphone's flash is a strange color, but the non-flash pictures come out so much truer to what I am seeing. I hope the pictures are not too dark when you are seeing them. Let me know...

After walking the cavern and taking the almost 1000 foot elevator ride back up, I was tired. I walked around the museum and read everything there... fascinating tidbits about the area and the native inhabitants as well as tons of information on the geological forces that formed the caverns between 4 and 6 million years ago, when water rich in hydrogen sulfide began to seep through cracks in the limestone that was formed hundreds of millions of years earlier by a vast sea that once covered New Mexico (that's a quote from Google). They say the caverns are now mostly "dry," which means there is no more water carving and forming new or expanding old formations. I was in one section though, with no one else there and very very little light and I was actually mesmerized by the sound of water dripping. In my mind, that drip drip drip was continuing the millions of years of work... so I have a very active mind, what can I say? I hadn't read the "dry" part at that point.

So after the caverns and the history lessons, I got dinner at the little café run by the Park Service. Would you believe I had a terrific meal? It was New Mexico Mexican and was delicious. I was biding my time, waiting for the lecture on the bats at Carlsbad, which precedes the bats leaving the caves. The lecture was good, but when the bats started coming out, that was pretty amazing. They just started in little groups, flying counter clockwise in a swarm as we had been told (though no one knows quite why they do that). Then as time passed more and more... and more and more... and more(!) bats came out of the caves. They were flying so tightly that it really did look like a tornado of bats. Off into the distance they flew, most flying to the left, but some to the right... seeking sources of water and food. The ranger said that 100,000 bats can eat up to 1,000 pounds of insects each night... that is a whole lot of insects, and they catch them in flight. They don't land to feed. WOW!

So enjoy the pictures. I have finally figured out how to get the galleries and faster posting of pictures working so hopefully that makes things easier. I am not sure that I will be able to do it on my iPad (I'm still at Justin's in Albuquerque) but it's good for now. You can also go back to the last post about the travels and travails and you will see that I have posted the better quality pictures. If you are going to laugh at me stuck in a tiny street, you should at least be able to see the humiliation in full resolution! HAHA!! I have a confession to make about that one... I conflated the trip from Marfa to Carlsbad and from Carlsbad to White Sands National Monument. Both trips were beautiful, had twisty turny roads and captured the beautiful aesthetic of this region. Getting stuck on the little teeny street in Cloudcroft was actually on the roads out of Carlsbad not in. I just changed the post to reflect that it covered TWO rides... and to you, my dear readers, I apologize for the mix up.

Next up is White Sands National Monument... you are in for quite the treat as that is a super special place!

One more technical note... on dates... I was changing dates to reflect when I was actually in a place rather than when I wrote the write up. When I did that, subscribers were not getting notified that I had posted since the time had passed as far as the systems were concerned. So now I am leaving the posting date for a couple days then changing it to reflect the visit date. Just so you know!

Let me know what you see when you look at the various pictures.... Leave comments, ask questions, and don't forget to subscribe!