Having left the valley of science, military, past atomic testing, and the like, our route took us over a range of mountains to the east and then south, towards the Texas border. Today we spent a few hours hiking down and around some of Carlsbad Caverns. These are truly immense caverns deep in the limestone of the Guadalupe Mountains. None of what we saw inspired me to take up spelunking, but I have to admit it was quite neat. We were able to hike down into the caverns, about a 3 km walk on a constantly descending paved walkway, until we arrived in the Big Room, apparently the size of 14 football fields (probably American football fields…). Here we walked along a continuous array of limestone concretions: popcorn, stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, pillars and the like. At one point, I believe the ceiling was over 140 ft high, much like being in a British cathedral. Quite awesome.
Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us hike back out because we were past their cutoff time for that option, so we had to take the elevator back to the surface along with all the other ordinary walkers. Boooooo.
By the way, between March and October, the natural entrance to the caverns is used as an exit by roosting Free-Tail Bats, which head out for their evening foraging at dark each night.
After seeing some of what Carlsbad had to offer, it was on to Guadalupe National Park where there is more desert, canyons and the highest point in Texas.
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