New Mexico Travels with Julie - Carlsbad Caverns

October 31, 2019

Both Julie and I really wanted to visit Carlsbad Caverns. This was my third or fourth time but Julie's first. We decided to hike in through the natural entrance and explore the big room. As usual we ended up hiking alone and then meeting back up afterwards.

Julie was really looking to this visit

We started through the natural entrance which has a whole seating area in front of it for the evening bat fly-out.  Bats had migrated to Mexico before we arrived

At the start of the hike down into the cave

This was taken in the last bit of natural light before going down too deep to see outside light

Many of the more specular formations were lit 

Awesome

Nature can get a lot done in 4-6 million years

Massive structures with delicate stalactites

So many kinds of structures

WOW

Pillars

The interaction of water and minerals over millions of years  is totally amazing

I was a wonderful afternoon. Now we only have another one hundred fifteen caves to go to see all the underground of Carlsbad Caverns.

We left just before closing time and made the  long drive to our campsite at Monahan Sandhills State Park, where we set up in the dark and ate a late supper. The following morning, we had to pack Julie to fly home, before taking a quick look at the park. Soon we were back in the car for another long trip to San Antonio, followed by a few more hours of driving to Garner State Park to meet my daughter. It was again dark by the time I found my daughter's campsite.

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you Opt Outside. I'd love to hear about your outings with you and your friends. Use the comments to tell me, or give me a link to your blog.

In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson