Day 12
States: Still in New Mexico
Sites Seen: Carlsbad Caverns, Carlsbad Lake Recreation area, Bat Flight (back at Carlsbad Caverns)
Every day, I add another layer of burnt and freckles to this face! And Amanda Cox, if you’re reading this, as soon as you mentioned the rash guard shirt, I remembered that I brought one! 🙌
Last night’s sleep was glorious! Turns out, once the sun sets, the temperature improves drastically. So we all slept really well, were a little chilly even, and took advantage of the morning to sleep in a bit.
Once we had everything together, we headed to Carlsbad Caverns. I had done a lot of reading about this and saw a lot of pictures online, but nothing really could prepare me for the awesomeness of this place. We were visitor numbers 89, 90, 91, and 92 for the day according to the ranger. Over 2000 people visit the cave each day and he encouraged us to use our library voices and enjoy the quiet of the cavern.
We used the natural entrance of the cave to go in. This very steep, switch back path descends 80 stories (750 ft) into the ground and is about a mile long. It took us about an hour to get down, partly because it is so steep, and partly because we kept stopping to take pictures. I could have taken millions of photos but eventually you have to give up because photos really don’t do it justice.
Once you get into the cavern, the trail levels out and you get to walk around the Big Room. This trail is about 1.25 miles and takes about 1-1.5 hours. We were very pleased to discover that they added bathrooms and an area where you could eat once in. I’m not sure the girls would have made it that long without food and my stomach was growling by the end also. This was a more strenuous hike than we imagined, especially getting down into the cavern, but I’m so glad we experienced it this way and I’m sure we’ll all sleep well tonight!
One of the problems with camping, especially in places as hot as we are, is deciding what to do in the middle of the day. We don’t want to waste part of a day not doing anything, but we also don’t want to die in the heat 🌵. And you can’t really come back to the campground to nap or hang out because it isn’t air conditioned either. So today, we headed to the Carlsbad Lake Recreation area, which is actually on the river, and hung out there. We had a great time swimming, eating cold treats, and grilling out in the shade of the park. It was a great way to stay cool 😎
After this, we headed back to Carlsbad Caverns for the Bat Flight Program 🦇. A ranger speaks about bats briefly at 7:30 and then you get to watch the bats pour out of the cave and spiral up into the air to go look for food. The cave is currently home to about 500,000 bats. Watching them come out of the cave is amazing. Bats are unable to fly straight up like birds so they have to spiral (always counter clockwise according to the ranger) to get high enough to get out of the cave. The amphitheater where you sit and watch is so close you can hear the whooshwhooshwhoosh of all of their wings as they spiral around and up.
There are rules to this. You are not allowed to talk or move once the bats start coming out. There are to be absolutely no electronics. And you are not permitted to take any photos. Because if the bats get startled, they won’t come out. So we were all forced to just be in the moment and enjoy it. And seriously, I have never seen such a well-behaved, large group of people. I didn’t see (or hear) any cell phones and even the tinies that were present were quiet. It really was something to see.
Since I couldn’t take any pictures, I have borrowed one from the National Park Services website for you.
Tomorrow we head to Arizona to see my brother and his family and then we’re off to the Grand Canyon.
Talk to you soon!
Deanna
America or Bust 