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| Dr. Seuss-esque tree at Carlsbad Caverns National Park |
After my adventures in Palo Duro State Park in Texas, I
headed to southeastern New Mexico. I
stopped and ensured I had a spot to camp in the undeveloped section in Brantley
Lake State Park. I didn’t set up though
because I was only twenty-five miles north of Carlsbad Caverns and I couldn’t
wait to go! The drive up to Carlsbad
Caverns National Park was unexpectedly beautiful! It takes about five miles of winding up
beautiful, plateau-y mountains covered with various types of cactus and stunted
palm trees that look like something that would appear in a Dr. Seuss book to
get to the top where the visitor center is.
The parking lot has beautiful views of the Guadalupe Mountains! I was too late to go into the cave that day,
so I walked on the nature trail and then found my way to the bat amphitheater
outside of the natural entrance to the cave.
At sunset every night in the summer, the thousands of bats that live in
the cave during the day, fly out and go find bugs and moths to eat. It was a most amazing sight to see a steady stream
of bats come out of the cave for about forty-five minutes! Some of them even flew right over my
head! It was strangely beautiful!
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| The bat ampitheater and view of the nature entrance to the cave at Carlsbad Caverns |
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| Inside the cave! |
The next day, I headed back to Carlsbad Caverns. I was disappointed to learn that if you
don’t’ have reservations for the ranger led tours six weeks in advance, you’re
not going to be able to go on one. Since
I didn’t know I’d be anywhere remotely near New Mexico six weeks ago, I clearly
didn’t have reservations. However, you
can walk through the natural entrance all the way to the elevator by
yourself! It was huge (and I know I
only saw a small portion of it)! It was
amazing how far down I walked as I made my way through the cave. It had an astonishingly magical feel to
it. The magical ambiance was especially
strong in the largest room in the cave where there were tons of stalactites,
stalagmites, and columns everywhere! I
was half expecting Harry Potter to come whizzing by on his broom!
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| Guadalupe Mountains National Park |
After strolling through the cave, I headed to Guadalupe
Mountains National Park just over the border in Texas. I set up my tent right at the foot of the
mountains, then I headed for the trails.
I started hiking up towards the highest point in Texas. It was a very steep and windy trail. There were many chances for spectacular views
of the mountain range! I met a Japanese
lady shortly after I started hiking. She
was very alarmed and disapproving of the fact that I was alone, she also told
me it was much too late to make it to the top. Luckily, she got distracted by a deer, so I
was able to slip away without having to argue my case too much. When I was pretty close to the top, I somehow
got off the trail without realizing it.
What I thought was the trail kept getting steeper and steeper. After a while, I had to start climbing. After that went on for a few moments, I
stopped and assessed the situation. I
wasn’t confident I was going to be able to safely get down, so I
retreated. As I retreated, I realized
that even though the map did say strenuous, it didn’t seem likely that the
national parks system would send random hikers up to climb their way to the top
of a mountain without fair warning. So,
as I backtracked I started looking for the trail. I finally found I the turn I missed and
finished my hike to the top. It was an
excellent view of both the mountains and the valley below, but I didn't have
too much time to soak it in since that Japanese lady was right, it was kind of
late, although, that worked in my favor since it was really beautiful to see
the fading sun reflect off the mountains as I made my way down!
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| View from Guadalupe Peak (the highest point in Texas) |
The next day, I decided that I hadn’t gotten enough of
Carlsbad Caverns, so I headed back to take the tour again. This was a great decision because it was the
first Monday that most everyone was in school.
That meant that it was just me and about twelve retirees at the
park! It was so wonderful to get to
wander around the cave when it was so quite!
It really added to the cave atmosphere!
I again, was swept away by the beauty and other-worldliness of the cave! It’s so amazing to know that such
breathtaking beauty exists even underground!
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| Back inside the cave at Carlsbad Caverns! |
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