Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns, Bottomless lakes state park.

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August 10, Wednesday night I camped at Bottomless Lakes State Park in New Mexico.
It has been a pretty busy 3 days since I left on Monday. I went to Junction, and Ft Stockton. I invested half a day touring Ft Stockton, and there is a lot to see. Then I went on to Guadalupe Mountains National Park and stayed at the Pine Springs Campground. A campsite there is $8.00 a night. I had the place entirely to myself.
Wednesday morning I visited the exhibits at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park Visitor Center then drove Northeast to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
I walked down the natural entrance instead of taking the elevator and then after taking about a 45 minute break and drinking two cups of quite good coffee I invested another couple of hours in walking around the “big room” at the caverns.
Coming down the natural entrance was exhausting because you are always having to lean back to keep from falling down. Plus it is just a long way. The “Big Room” wasn’t too bad as it was mostly level and only about 1 ½ mile around the trail.
Altogether I invested about 5 hours in the cavern, and 7 at the park. I guess that’s one of the reasons I travel solo. I was constantly stopping at locations and taking time to really “take in” the awesomeness of the caverns. And it was truly awesome. Most other people can't just stop and take time to enjoy anything. They are always in too much of a hurry.
I arrived fairly late in Roswell and after a short stop at the MacDonald’s to do a little homework and send out a quick email I drove out to the Bottomless Lakes State Park. I got a nice site overlooking the lake and the view to the west and settled in.
I noticed a couple of scorpians walking around and took care not to step on them.
Later in the evening a skunk came into my campsite like he owned the place and I yielded to him and got in the truck for the night.
Bottomless Lakes campground is on Lake Lea and has campsites with water and electric for $14 and full hookups for $18. It also has restrooms with hot showers.

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