Playing Tourist at Carlsbad Caverns

We just had to stop at Carlsbad Caverns when passing through Whites City on our way to Roswell, NM. And we just now got around to updating all the pictures in the gallery below.

The park was under construction while we were there. But I suppose this place has really been under construction for the past few hundred thousand years or so.

I’m not one to thoroughly enjoy the whole tourist scene, so I am certainly glad we did this on the off season. I couldn’t imagine the amazing silence and utter calm of this place being disturbed by the hordes of children who reportedly show up in summer.

And I must admit, this place was pretty amazing. Though it was a pretty much a whole bunch of rocks that started looking similar after a while, I can honestly say it was much more amazing than René’s “most amazing” Pile of Junk in Austin.

This vast open space underground is quite dramatic. As are all the tiny crevices leading to nowhere, or who knows where.

Stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, columns, popcorn … the cave decorations with names like Lion’s Tail and Rock of Ages, are all pretty incredible when you consider how they formed. And how long it took. My particular favorite is this one I so aptly named Slippery Nipple.

While the three mile hike we took through the Natural Entrance and The Big Room is easy and paved. It’s hard to imagine the early adventurers who scoped out the place on their own.

The only bad thing about seeing Carlsbad Caverns in the off season is that we missed the nightly escape of the nearly half a million resident Brazilian Freetail Bats who spend their off season in Mexico.

6 thoughts on “Playing Tourist at Carlsbad Caverns”

  1. Hey, that’s where my husband and I met! I grew up in Carlsbad and worked at the Caverns one summer while in college. Dh and I like to say we met 750 feet underground–not too common! He worked there for several years (we both worked for the concession people underground the summer I worked there). He went on to work as a ranger there several summers and we even lived out there in the park housing one summer. Pretty neat. And, yeah, some cool places leading off into some of those crevices! We even got to watch the bats come out one night from INSIDE the cave.

    BTW, I found this blog from one of Rene’s posts on the Simple Living forum. I have been reading almost since the beginning, just never comment. Since you were visiting my former home though, I had to say something. 🙂 You just drove by me recently on your trip through Texas. Sounds like you had lots of fun at Luckenbach. Awesome place! I’m interested to see if you do any more visiting in NM. Before moving down here, we were living in Gallup. I really enjoyed northern NM. Some pretty places!

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