Blogs from Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States, North America

After our visit to White Sands Nat Mon we took off to Carlsbad, NM. We got our motel, a night's sleep, and were off to the Caverns the next morning - Nov. 27. Although both of us had been to Carlsbad Caverns before, it was good to visit again. We had tour tickets for the King's Palace tour. Since the tour is a 1 1/2 hour tour, we took the elevator down the 75 stories, instead of going down the natural entrance that is 1 1/4 mile long. The cave is magnificent.... read more

We packed our bags for a weekend trip to New Mexico. I have been perusing my passion for travel with a purpose. One of the the items on my bucket list has been to visit all the World Heritage Sites around the world, natural and cultural. Living in the United States, I have the opportunity to visit as many as 10 if not more. From Arizona, the drive to New Mexico is less than 7 hours. From Tucson, head east on I-10 towards El Paso, take the 62/180 exit towards New Mexico until you get to Whites city. Make a left turn after the Whites City sign to Carlsbad Caverns. A total journey of 6.5 hours if you do not break the journey with an overnight. In our case we stayed the night in El Paso, ... read more

From Gail's journal for Monday, October 11th: We are here at KOA Carlsbad. It's really quite nice and we've decided that we like KOA's. Lindsay says it's 45 degrees outside, but will warm up to 80 degrees. One drawback - there are a lot of small houseflies, so sitting out at the picnic table doesn't appeal. Today was a busy day. In the morning we went to the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park in Carlsbad. It is located high atop the Ocotillo Hills overlooking Carlsbad. We took a self-guided tour through the botanical gardens specializing in native species of Mew Mexico. The park is also a haven for injured of orphaned animals, everything from rare Mexican wolves to rattlesnakes! In the afternoon we visited the Carlsbad Caverns. We opted for the "Big Room Self-Guided ... read more

Beep Beep - the Search for a Road Runner Oh my, I thought yesterday was “El Despoblado.” I wasn’t prepared for today. We left Ft. Stockton traveling on Route 285 towards Carlsbad National Park. Real Desert. This is oil country for sure, well after well drilled into the shale rock which supports only short grass, yucca and greasewood. This is extreme landscape, but beautiful in its starkness. I spent all day looking at the fence posts because I am on a mission to find a Road Runner. Paul says they are like the Jack-a-lope and don’t really exist. However, they are in my bird book and books don’t lie - do they? I will get a photo of a Road Runner. Carlsbad Cavern’s were spooky. We hiked what is called the “Natural Entrance”, a 1.25 miles ... read more

Well now, today was interesting. It finally made it up to 71 degrees but inside the cave it is 56 degrees all the time. We did the longest tour and it was self guided. Spectacular scenery and quite the workout. There was no need to follow up with tennis or volleyball afterwords. A few pictures turned out and few did not so naturally we decided to keep the ones that did. The trusty IPhone did well considering the low lighting down there. We were down there for about 3 hours. After that we did the Super Walmart for provisions and Sonics for a strawberry/banana shake. Now we are back at the coach resting up for the drive to San Antonio tomorrow (or at least most of the way). Sure happy to have the cold weather ... read more