On The Road with Barb and Brad: First Leg

Well, it seems like it was only yesterday that we were arriving from our last summer's adventures. But now we have finished packing up and we said a temporary "Good-bye!" to our Texas home. We hit the road bright and early and headed westward through Houston and San Antonio, finally coming to an overnight stop in a rest area near Sonora, TX. Nice rest area and it was definitely time to take a break that day!

You can see us in the photo above. We spent a nice restful evening and then continued on towards Carlsbad, NM. Seems odd that in all of our travels over the years, we have never been to the caverns here. We found a nice campground and got set up. Since we had some extra time, we took a quick recon trip to the National Park to check things out. We decided to take a couple of days to visit the caves. Tomorrow we will take the self guided tours that are available. The following day we will take a Ranger led tour and see part of the caverns that can't be seen if not on a tour.

Overnight a cold front blew through bringing with it rain and strong winds. Temperatures dropped to the low 40s overnight and the wind-driven raindrops flew through the air as if propelled from a shotgun. The flag at the Visitor's Center was hanging to the flagpole for dear life and visibility of the valley below was near zero! We had decided to go into the caves via the large natural entrance. It is through this entrance that the famous Carlsbad bats emerge at dusk during the summer. Much to our disappointment, they have not yet arrived this year. The walk to the natural entrance normally is a nice desert garden trail that led into the opening. Today however, we were hit with winds of 50-60 mph and rain. We fought our way to the entrance and gladly got below ground. Here the winds and rain disappeared and the temperature was a relatively cool 56 degrees. Much more comfortable!

The Natural Entrance

The trail into the cave is steep and has several switchbacks but it is paved and relatively easy to navigate. There are not a lot of cave formations on the way down (like stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and curtains). This cave is unique in that it was formed by hydrogen sulfide gas that combined with water and oxygen and made sulfuric acid. This acid ate away at the limestone and formed many of the caverns. Then, over time, groundwater began to seep in and that,s when the cave formations began. So it is unlike other caves in the southeastern US that were formed and "decorated" by the forces of water. Huge boulders lie on your path downwards and the trail weaves around them. Finally you end up 750 feet below the surface at the crossroad junction. One direction leads to the gift shop and snack shop where you can dine in a huge underground dining hall. This way also leads to the easier way in and out of the caves... the elevators! The other path leads you on a circuitous route around the "Big Room." This cavern is about the length of 14 football fields. If you walk the entire trail around it you will cover about 1.3 miles. One of the interesting things that I observed is that this is the only cave that I have been into where folks with disabilities could easily get around. The trail is relatively flat and level and can accommodate wheelchairs. The aforementioned elevator runs from the Visitor's Center down to the lower level and opens up at the snack shop. This makes for a comfortable ride down for those who can't or don't want to take the hike in from the Natural Entrance.

The sheer size of this cavern is impossible to put in a picture. The photo above looks out along a portion of the Big Room. In the lower right corner you can just see the silver handrails that line the path. The visible portion is probably 20 or 30 feet long. So that gives you some perspective. But look at the decorations in the picture. Stalactites large and small hang from the ceiling. Stalagmites come up from the floor in copious quantities and unlimited shapes. Sometimes they come together and form a column that reaches from floor to ceiling. The best part--you get to wander around through it all!!! While there were a lot of cars in the parking lot and we passed a lot of people, there were times that we were the only folks on the trail. It was like we had the cave all to ourselves.

Behind me in the photo above is just one of the columns in the Big Room. It gives you some perspective of the size and otherworldly beauty of the cave. Look at all of the stalactites over my head. Kind of like some medieval torture device.

OK, the photo above is of a formation called "The Caveman." If you look at it just right,' Star Wars fans, it looks to me like Chewbacca gazing to the viewers left. But, that's just me.

Chinese Theater

Here again are just some of the features and colors. The features in the Chinese Theatere are 6-7 feet tall. The column on the right of the above photo is 60 feet tall!! Unbelievably impressive! We took over 100 photos and they don't begin to give you the feel of the size and sheer volume of the cavern. You will just have to come see it for yourself!

The next day dawned magnificent. Sunshine abounded and the temperatures rebounded nicely. We toured the caves and then toured the Big Room again (one, to enjoy the scenic wonder of the cavern and two, to play with exposures and experiment with lighting for photos). On the way back to our campground, we stopped to see the desert in bloom. One good thing about the rains this time of year, the desert flowers are coming out all over. Carpets of purples, blues, yellows and oranges can be seen all around. Even the yuccas are in bloom.

We had originally planned on heading to northern New Mexico, to a mineral spring spa called Ojo Caliente. The weather had other plans. Seems that there is a large Canadian cold front coming through and it is bringing with it high winds, freezing temperatures, and possibly some snow. We put our heads together and decided to drop our northern New Mexico stop and instead stay an extra day in Carlsbad and add a day to our stay at the Grand Canyon. So with that extra day, we jumped out and took a day trip to Roswell. The first stop of the day was the Eddy House. This house was owned by Charles Eddy in the mid 1880's. Robert Tansill and his family spent the winter of 1888 in this house. Tansill was instrumental in the settlement of the town of Eddy which later was renamed Carlsbad.

Next stop was the concrete flume. This structure was originally made of wood in 1890. It was washed away by a flood in 1902 and replaced with this concrete structure in 1903. At the time it was built, it was the largest concrete structure in the world. It carries water from the Pecos River as part of the Carlsbad Irrigation District. It was once featured on Ripleys Believe It or Not as the river that crosses itself.

River water flowing into the flume

Our last stop was the city of Roswell, made famous by the alleged crash of a UFO in 1947 near the city. Supposedly there were five bodies of aliens found, four dead and one still alive. All evidence of the crash was secured and sanitized by the Air Force. It was originally dismissed as debris from a radar test balloon that had crashed. Since then, conspiracy theories abound and what really happened has died with the primary participants. What is a fact is that Roswell has capitalized on UFO fever and has embraced both believers and doubters alike. We visited the International UFO Museum and Research Center. Here is a large collection of photos, testimony, and research on UFO's and UFO phenomena.