And by bad, we mean absolutely mind-blowing. After a hellacious – and that is not hyperbole, it looked like we were driving through hell with gusting winds and dust storms and oil fields – drive from Temple to Carlsbad NM, we found our modest but comfy campground. The boys washed off the residue of the dust storms of west Texas in the unheated indoor pool. The winds never let up, and we struggled on our bikes alongside a highway to Guadalupe Brewing Company where we enjoyed pints and pizza on their porch.
The next morning the winds had died down, and we made our way up to the Carlsbad Caverns visitors center. It was our first trip up into mountains in the RV, and we pulled off into a scenic area on our way up where we explored some natural cliff shelters.
Once at the visitors center we were treated with a wide vista. We got our tickets (thanks Sam for the 4th grader national parks passes!) and made our way to the Natural Entrance. This is a natural opening into the cavern, and we descended the steep path with a view of the hold we were about to enter. This path took us 750 feet (75 stories) under ground, and it wasn’t long before the sunlight disappeared and we were whispering in the darkness and clutching the metal railing.
For two and a half miles we wound our way through a fantastical world that we couldn’t have imagined existed under the desert and mountains. Each twist and turn revealed yet another marvel, more amazing than the one before. We were told to keep our voices down, but it wasn’t easy to keep from crying out to each other, “do you see this!?” Vast domed ceilings crowded with needle-like stalactites, the glistening white mound of a “baby” stalagmite already two stories tall, the Iceberg Rock which weighed 200,000 tons and fell from the ceiling thousands of years ago – it was overwhelming, and we were only halfway through our hike.
Once we’d descended the Natural Entrance trail we entered the Big Room. The view here opened up, and the comparisons we’d heard all paled – the Grand Canyon with a roof on it, an underground natural Grand Central Station – it’s over 8 acres of more mind-bending features like the Bottomless Pit, gardens of stone lilly pads, faerie gardens, as well as towering shapes and dangling formations Chihuly could have crafted.
The drive through west Texas was more than worth that experience. We left the caverns and made our way successfully over Guadalupe Pass, our first real climb and descent in the RV. Tonight we camp at the foot of the Sacramento Mountains at Oliver Lee State Park. Tomorrow on to more adventures in the White Sands National Park desert!
Leave a Reply