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Published: October 24th 2007
It's an understatement to call Texas a land of contrasts.
This land is home of the strip mall, fast food, the texas school book depository & grassy knoll of Dallas, and the hideous culture that produced George W. Bush.
It's also a land of great beauty, that gave the world Zydeco music (along with S.W. Louisianna), Lightning Hopkins, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Holly, Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin, and a score of other wonderfull musicians.
A few years back, we spent some time crabbing on the Gulf Coast in exterme south east Texas & had a great time. I've also got to spend time in that area studying the accordion. It's a beautiful area with a beautiful culture.
Now were in extreme western texas in the Guadalupe Mountains another area of great beauty.
We had hoped to climb the Guadalupe Peak, highest mountain in Texas, but high winds convince us to stay in the canyons. Not a bad choice either. We spend a day at Carlsbad Caverns, up the road in New Mexico, & then hike up Mckittrick Canyon where the trail takes us from Chihuahuan Desert, through at transitional area of saw tooth maples,
texas madrones and walnuts, and oaks, to a "alpine" zone of ponderosa pines.
Carlsbad Caverns is a UNESCO World Heratage site (like Wat Phu in Laos). We hike on a three mile trail, down thru the natural enterance, & thru the "Big Room". By the time we are done, we are ready to see daylight again. Later at dusk, we watch the bats flight. Normally about 400,000 thousand bats live in the cave. At this time, due to migrating bats staying in the cave, we are told there are 1.2 million bats in the cave. We watch bats fly out for over an hour, until it's too dark to see anymore. They are still flying out when we leave...
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Morning in the Guadalupe Mountains
