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Published: June 20th 2016
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Today we got to go to our first National Park, Carlsbad Caverns. We left early in the morning and thankfully the weather was much nicer than the day prior. It took us about an hour to get there, we arrived to a very windy and curvy road, making us very grateful to not have the trailer in tow. We entered the base of the National Park into a mountainous area, much different than what we are use to on the east coast; the mountains here are rocky, sandy hills with a little bit of vegetation. We finally made it to the top where the parking, entrance and gift shop are located. The view from here was beyond words, so we will include a few pictures. We went ahead and purchased the National Park pass for $80 for the entire family, normal pricing is only $10 per adult and free for children/youth. They also have a kennel on site for $10/day. There were two options to enter the cave; the natural opening or the elevator. We choose the natural opening which was 1.2 miles of steep, curvy, slippery and often times smelly walk way. As you continued along the walk way you
slowly went deeper into the Earth until you were in the darkness of the cave. It was very disorienting trying to look up at the cave and continuing to walk down the steep path, but you did not want to miss any of the formations. At the entrance of the cave we got to enjoy watching the cave swallows swooping in and out, which were small little birds that made nests just inside the mouth of the cave. We were unfortunately there too early to see any bats but there was plenty of evidence that there was a abundance of them. The smell of bat poop was overwhelming and one of the information stations stated that it in one section of the cave the bat poop was over 40 feet deep, which funny enough is one of the reasons the cave was discovered, early pioneers sought out bat poop for fertilizer. It had all of the many characteristics of other caves: stalagmites, stalactites, soda straws, columns and water pools, but this cave was the father of all caves in size, depth and sheer magnitude. Like many other caves it was a cool 56 degrees all the time, we would have
loved to park the trailer and camp here since it was over 100 degrees where we were camping. We ended up at the cave floor being 550 feet below ground. This is where the elevator and bathrooms are located, we continued on another 1.2 miles thru the great room which was equivalent to 600,000 square feet. Honestly cannot explain this cave in enough detail or take photos to do it justice. This is a must see for anyone who will be anywhere near here. All said it took three hours and close to three miles of walking. Nate and Daisy left there awestruck and amazed having never seen anything like it and I was no less impressed than when I saw it at age 14. The cave absolutely spoiled any cave we will see in the future. ..................... DON'T FORGET TO SCROLL DOWN, THERE ARE MORE PICS TO SEE!!!!! .................................................
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Gena burrage
Thanks for sharing!!
Gregg and I just looked through all of your photos! It looks like you guys are having a great time! THanks so much for letting us go on virtual vacation with you!! Let us know if you need anything. -- Gena Burrage