Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains

While staying in Carlsbad, NM (a new state for Matthew), we visited two local National Parks - Carlsbad Caverns in NM and Guadalupe Mountains in Texas.

We did three separate walking tours of the Caverns, two on our own and one with a ranger.  The interior is spectacular, each view more impressive than the last.  The National Park working with a lighting designer from Broadway to produce dramatic views.  Unfortunately, it's very difficult to photograph, either with available light or flash.  Plus, everything has kind of a grey hue.  But it was still spectacular.

Here's the main entrance and some initial views.

This is a 750 feet decline over a trail of about 1 mile into the main cavern area (where there is an elevator, restrooms, and a lunch area).  After this we took a ranger-led tour of a cavern known as King's Palace.  In early days there were town meetings held here and weddings!  The National Park now takes much better care to preserve the caverns in their original state.  We were in this cavern when the Ranger (with Matthew's assistance) turned the lights off so we could experience the cavern the way the original explorers did).

Finally, we visited the "Big Room," another mile or so trail in the largest of the many connected caverns.  Many of the formations have been given names.  Here is Rock of Ages.

Here's a selection of other images.

Matthew was able to get another Junior Ranger badge.  The park service really makes you learn a lot about geology, history, ecosystems, and so on, to earn a badge.  The caverns started millions of years ago as a reef along a sea that covered the central part of what is now North America.  Over years, continents moved, the sea bed was lifted up and the huge reef became limestone.  Then there were millions of years of internal erosion and stalactite and stalagmite formation.

Obviously, Carlsbad Caverns are under the ground.  But about 40 miles to the south, that same reef was pushed up and the surrounding soil eroded.  This is now the Guadalupe Mountain range, containing the highest peak in Texas.

This peak is El Capitan and it rises majestically out of the desert.  We did a short hike around the "foothills" of the mountain range.

There were a few springs along the way.  Also, we found lots of fossils.

Back in the town of Carlsbad, we went to First United Methodist Church on Sunday.  The minister preached on the passage in the Bible about the lost sheep.  He mentioned that he had experience as a boy attempting to retrieve sheep that were tangled up in barbed wire.  A number of other people in the congregation also indicated that they had also had that experience.  I knew we were no longer in Ohio!

Speaking of Ohio, as we drove from Carlsbad to El Paso we took the following road.

Like Route 66 and 40 in Ohio, highway 62 is a national road.  But you won't see those mountains in Ohio!  These mountains are part of a "Texas trail" of mountains.

We experienced a sand storm in El Paso.  We didn't get to see much of the city because of the high winds and sand.