Carlsbad, New Mexico

We stayed at an Escapees park called The Ranch.   I called several parks closer to the caverns and they were $39 a night.   So even though it was  further away we decided to go with the Escapees park.   It was $14 a night but we decided to just dry camp since we were only going to stay 2 nights.    It's $5 a night and they gave us the first night free so it only cost us $5 for the 2 nights.  They have a big area for dry camping so we didn't have to unhook the trailer.

On the way to the caverns we saw a road up the side of the hill.  We decided to follow it just to see where it went.  It just kept going up and up.  Seemed like a long way but it was just a mile. 




This was coming back down the road

when we got to the top, there was an oil container

This was looking out over the valley

We got to the Park and it was almost 5 miles  back to the cavern. There were a few places to pull off for a scenic look but otherwise it's just a drive there.

Driving back to the Cavern



you can see there is not much here but hills and road

 

These were pretty, don't know if they had this color
or if it's just the camera

Still more of the road leading up to the cavern

Some of the pictures have a lot of color or it's looks like there are bright lights.  That's because I had to lighten the pictures with the computer because the pictures were so dark.  So it was actually a lot darker in the cave than it appears in the pictures. 

This was called the "totem pole"





 

one of the formations, there were so many





These are almost ready to meet
Stalagmite, Ed remembers this by "mighty strong
from the bottom up"



 

Columns

Ice Crystals, the colors were not there, that is the camera

Stalactite, Ed said he remembers this by " they have to be tight
to hang to the ceiling"



Looks like an ice cave

 

this was a fat one

thought you might like an illustration

This one still had water dripping on it, also had
a space under it

The place was big

We really enjoyed the Cavern.   It is just a big room with a walkway all the way around it.  It's the first one we have ever went in that we didn't have a tour guide.  So we were able to walk at our own pace.  There were places to sit down and rest or stop and take pictures.  The distance around was 1 and 1/2 miles.  There was a lower level that is still being explored but it is not open to the public. 

As you can see it's big, like being on another planet



There was so much to see, it was nice not having to stay
with a guide

So many different formations

 

 

 

One of the best caves we have been in

 

This goes down to the lower level, this is
the ladder that the explorer  used
to go down to that level

Not a very good picture but this is the way the people use to come
in to the cave and also leave the cave.  Now they have an elevator
and a very nice walk way

We were told when we got our ticket that the line at the elevators are very long in the evening, so the woman suggested we take the elevator down and walk out.  So not knowing the details we decided to do that.  Maybe we should have known since when you go in, you go down, thus the walk out would be up.  Duh!  The walk up was 1 and 1/4 mile and it was up.  As we were going up, people were coming down.  They were saying things like, "you still have a long way to go" and "we really admire you for deciding to walk out."   We had no idea what we were getting into.  If it hadn't been for the railing, which I used to pull myself up, I don't think I could have made it. 

Around and around we went

When we saw the light we thought we were close

We still had a long way to go, still more levels

We had heard about the flight of the bats in the evening.  But the bats are in Mexico at this time so we didn't get to see it.  When we got to the opening we thought we were seeing the bats but they are cave swallows. 

One of them found Ed

He was at the wrong place

people sit here to watch the bats come out of the cave
in the evening, called the
"flight of the bats"

Ed collapses

We were in the cave about 4 hours, walking about 3 miles.  You can see we took our time.  We had a good time and really enjoyed it. 

This is the cave

This is the big room

This shows the winding path coming out.

We are back at Medina Lake, a Thousand Trails park.  We have decided to gate guard a few months before we start heading back up north. 

Happy Trails    Ed and Lyn