Jun 15, 2010 - Carlsbad continued

. We ate dinner there instead of going home to the RV because we wanted to see the bats come out of the cave at dusk (7:45pm) We saw the movie about the National Cave Systems. They talked Mammoth Cave in KY and Carlsbad. We looked through the gift shops then stood outside for a while to take pictures. We could see rain in the distance coming our way. (They had told us there would be no show if there were any thunder or lightning.) We could come back tomorrow night, but Lord would you make the rain go the other way in time for the show...

Jun 4, 2010 - Carlsbad Caverns

All I can say in unbelievable! All the National Parks are beautiful and wondrous parts of our country but the Caverns are extra special in the way that the park service has developed the walkways, the hand rails, the service center in the great room and the elevators for your exit instead of having to walk out through the natural opening. Our first decision was - do we leave Mimi in the RV with the outside temperature hovering between 104 to 106 (true) or do we leave her with the kennel service at the park's visitor center. The kennel...

Jun 3, 2010 - Carlsbad

We've gotta be in the middle of a major heat wave. The weather report said hot so we left Roswel early and after a two hour drive arrived in Carlsbad. After getting set up in the RV park we visited the local visitor center for the Caverns and found out that we need to be at the park around 8:30. The natural walk down takes an hour, the tour of the big room takes 1 1/2 hours and since we don't have reservations for a guided tour will just keep our fingers crossed. The best part is that every one when leaving the caverns takes the elevators....

May 5, 2010 - Carlsbad Caverns

What a fun day. We left Pecos and traveled to Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. I had always grown up hearing about the wonders of the caverns but this was my first time to see them. I took lots of pictures but will only post a few here. My pictures don’t do the caverns justice with regards to magnificence nor do my pictures capture the huge scale of these formations. (Because visitors must stay on the path you can’t really put people or things in front of the formations that would act as a reference point for size or depth.) I walked the paths...

May 5, 2010 - Carlsbad, New Mexico

We left Texas early, and headed into the wind and I do mean wind; most of the day I could barely keep a 50mph speed and the gas mileage fell like a rock, (9.7) from 13. Not much to report on in Texas, other than the biggest wind farm I had ever seen. There must have be several thousand. The landscape was pretty much bunch grass and cactus and very little livestock. Temps turned warm in the mid 90's and even hotter today. Carlsbad is a dry, dusty town and we were surprised to find out the Caverns are nearly 27 miles away. This morning we...

May 1, 2010 - Carlsbad Caverns

On Friday, April 30th I drove north from Alpine to Carlsbad NM, driving through several mountains (in this part of Texas and New Mexico almost every town has a mountain, each beautiful in its own way) one of which being the Guadalupe mountains on the Tx/NM border. The views were incredible and I wanted to stop at each turn to take more pictures, but the turnouts for stopping were too few for me and I had to be happy with what I was able to take. Carlsbad is only an hour inside NM but I got lost trying to get back to the campgrounds once I...

Apr 22, 2010 - Carlsbad's Kings Palace Tour & Roswell, NM

VISITOR CENTER FEATURES ANSEL ADAMS WORK: We spend a bit of time admiring Ansel Adams’ and some more modern photographers’ works of the cave, watch some of the excellent DVD on display (which we decide we will buy later because it covers information about some of the more difficult-to-explore caves that we know we will never see). Of particular interest here is the fact that Adams was commissioned to take photos by the park service, so he did so but since he much preferred natural light, he considered the photos unsuccessful and tossed many...

Apr 21, 2010 - Albuquerque to Carlsbad Caverns: Left Arm and Big Room

ALBUQUERQUE TO CARLSBAD VIA TRINITY, NM: We leave the lovely Albuquerque area, with its clear mountain vistas and head into the New Mexican desert. Here, we see miles and miles of flat desert, with very little scrub brush. Even the cattle are scarce. As we pass the Trinity marker, site of America’s atomic bomb testing in the early 1940s, we ponder the known (health problems of many who watched) and unknown impacts that testing has had in this area. CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK: We get to White’s City RV park just before Carlsbad closes...

Apr 19, 2010 - Amazing Carlsbad Caverns

From Carlsbad RV Park in Carlsbad, New Mexico … We spent an amazing day at Carlsbad Caverns National Park today. We had no problem getting up early since we gained an hour yesterday. We headed out at 8:30 and drove up National Parks Highway. When we got to Whites City, we turned right, drove about a half mile, and entered the National Park. We drove 8 miles up the mountains increasing in elevation to feet. I was pleasantly surprised at the gorgeous views as the road had many switchbacks, and we drove between beautiful mountain peaks....

Apr 12, 2010 - Carlsbad NM

We are at Carlsbad. Went on the King's Palace tour this morning and then went on a self guided tour around the Big Room in the afternoon. The caves are enormous. There aren't as many crystaline formations as in Sonora Caverns but just the size of the caves is awe inspiring. Some of the drapery formations are fantastic. Unlike Sonora Cavers these caves are cool and we were happy that we brought jackets. Larry's jacket was kind of light and he was wishing for a heavier one by the end of the day. I am very surprised that they let you wander...

Apr 2, 2010 - Day 11: Carlsbad Caverns

We woke up early this morning - guess our bodies were still on Central time - so we could get an early start. The Caverns open at 8 and the last admission to the Big Room is at 2 pm. The campground is about 30 minutes from the park and then there's a 7 mile trek up the mountain. Fortunately the crowd was small when we arrived so we didn't have mobs of people to contend with. However, as the day progressed, we encountered more and more people. At 9 am we began the natural entrance self-guided tour. The park system uses audio "wands" - they...

Apr 1, 2010 - Day 10: Carlsbad, NM

After breakfast this morning, we headed to the old Fort Stockton - wasn't much there so I did a quick grocery run and we headed to Carlsbad. Made reservations by phone at the Carlsbad RV Park. The drive was on US 285 - lots of scrub brush, cows, oil wells, and barren land that seemed to go on forever. The bright spot of the trip was our stop in Pecos, Texas - they have a great little museum where Ralph took 40 or photos. You can see them all at our Picasaweb site - http://picasaweb.google.com/adaa70 We crossed the border at 1:10 CDT...