October 19, 2023
From White Sands we went to Carlsbad Caverns Nation Park Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the morning, Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Texas) in the early afternoon, then back to Carlsbad for the bat flight at dusk. A busy but fabulous day! #
The Carlsbad Caverns National Park has been on our list for over 30 years. We were thrilled to make it here and were one of the first to arrive when the park opened.
We took the elevator down 750 feet into the cavern. Pictures shows how vast the Big Room is, you can see the other couple who entered the caverns with us in the middle of this shot. We expected crowds for the self guided tour, butbasically had the caverns to ourselves.
The self guided tour is 1.25 miles and took us about 1.5 hours, stopping to take photos. The formations here are fascinating! For the history of the caverns, see:http://npshistory.com/publications/cave/index.htm
In the Big Room of the Cavern the temperature is a constant 56 degrees.
There were many of these stalagmites that looked like totem poles.
We saw many formations that appeared to create tunnels like you see in this shot.
Some stalagmites looked to be grouped together. It is common to see characters in the formations and the one on the right looked to us like a man with a beard.
Check out the formation called Crystal Spring Dome and is the largest active stalagmite in the caverns. It also includes a rare type of bell canopy at its base. Soda Straws and Drapery formations were coming from above.
After the Caverns tour, we drove approximately 30 miles to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas where we took quick shot of the Mountains from the Visitor Center.
Guadaloupe Mountains National Park is a National Park because it is the largest exposed reef in the world. We found fossils everywhere on the trails once we knew what to look for.
There were lots of Yucca, Cactus and Cholla plants on the trails.
We did a few short hikes. One was the Smith Spring Trail and we were very happy to find the spring! The trail was rocky and moderately strenuous.
We made it back to Carlsbad NP in time for the dusk “Bat Flight “. The exodus of over 200,000 Brazilian Free-tailed bats from the Bat Cave went on for over a half an hour and they were still leaving after we left. This shot was taken from near the parking lot because no camera or phones are allowed near the Bat Cave because it interferes with their echolocation.