After exploring Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we drove the hour or so north back into New Mexico to Carlsbad, where we met Emily and family for dinner. We hadn't seen them since they visited us in Virginia, I think the kids enjoyed seeing each other again, too.
We had reservations to get our cavern entrance tickets at 9 am, so we had a bit of a lazy start to the day. We drove the short 30 minutes or so to the park and basically headed straight in.
We opted to do the long walk down into the main cavern, first passing through the bat cave. We will make our way out there mid/late spring to see if we can see the bats taking off en-masse. A gal I work with lived in Austin, and she said the bats leaving Carlsbad where way more impressive than the bats in Austin. I don't have that frame of reference, but it would be neat to see.
We made the long walk down, passing a ton of cool features. It is hard to imagine the early explorers making their way that far down with only gas lanterns and some ropes, I'd think it would be easy to get lost in the massiveness of the caverns!
We enjoyed a quick little lunch while we were down there, before we did the big loop in the main cavern.
Fortunately, that part of the cavern is relatively flat, with a couple of deep, dark holes that I wouldn't want to fall in, including the "bottomless pit."
All told, we spent about 4 hours in the caverns. I know I had a good time, I think the kids did, too.
While "exploring" we came across this rickety old ladder that some early cave explorers used.
The caverns are just massive - there were several paths that were blocked off that limited some of our wanderings, but there was still plenty to see.
On our way home, between the park and Carlsbad, NM we found Skinner Rd. Had to get a photo!
Cheers,
Marc
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