Carlsbad Caverns

As I mentioned before, we drove all the way to Carlsbad with the top down. Gorgeous sunny day. Stopped for lunch in White City (and again for dinner on the way home). The photos hardly do the caverns justice, even the ones that show the scale. This is another place, like the temples and pyramids in Egypt that just can't be explained with words and photos, given the immense scale of the caverns.

We chose to walk down into the cavern through the natural entrance, rather than taking the elevators. While there isn't that much to see in the way of major formations in the first part, I believe that it is difficult to understand the magnitude of the caverns when one enters by the elevators. If you can do the walking, that is the way to go.

We got there around 2 pm and walked through the entire big room, so it was easy to stick around for the bat flight. The ranger talk prior to the bat flight was fun, but the bats were disappointing. They came out just a few at a time, maybe a couple of hundred by the time it was too dark to see. Waiting for them reminded me of waiting, seemingly forever, for Old Faithful to blow last summer.

Pay careful attention to the last photo of this group. Remember the gorgeous weather we had that warranted driving with the top down? It was gorgeous when we went into the cave, but the storm you see in the distance had passed over while we were 750 feet underground, and the interior of our car got drenched. We got to ride home through thunderstorms, sitting on soggy seats....... Fortunately, this is El Paso, and things dry quickly, even drenched foam car seats. They were completely dry by noon the next day. This put a bit of a damper (sorry, I couldn't resist) on the trip, but nothing could ruin the amazing experience of Carlsbad Caverns.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

On May 24 we drove out to Carlsbad Caverns, and on the way discovered Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We stopped at the main visitor center and discovered a small but beautiful botanical garden. The hills were gorgeous also, and we have decided to go back another time to do some hiking.

One of the things I found amazing on this drive was the way the scenery changed. There would be a stretch of yuccas followed by a stretch of ocotillos, sometimes a huge field of cholla cactus, and sometimes just creosote bush. Of course there were flowers blooming by the roadside - lots of thistles and Texas gourd, plus the inevitable yellow daisies. The weather was gorgeous, so we drove the entire way with the top down on our Mazda Speed.

The views of El Capitan were very striking, and were my first hint of the wonderful things to come. El Capitan is the beginning of the ancient reef in which the Carlsbad Caverns are located.


The desert willows were in full bloom. There was mistletoe growing in the oak trees, which is always interesting. Another sight which brought back memories was all the madrone trees, which looked to me very much like the manzanita I used to see growing in Southern California. It had been many, many years since I'd seen that, but the bark is very distinctive. A bit of research told me that manzanita and madrone are one.