Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a treasure in the desert of New Mexico.  The drive to the Caverns from the last major of town of El Paso in Texas took about three hours, including a stop and search at a military check point (this is normal procedure when travelling so close the Mexican border).

The sniffer dog took a particular liking to one of our outdoor cabinets which we regularly use as a bin cupboard to store rubbish until we can dispose of it at a rest area or camp site.  Perhaps the dog could smell something half rotten and tasty in there (although there is hardly a scrap of food waste in our trash as I have a fabulous waste disposal unit called Adam!).

We were quickly pulled to one side for a passport check and an uneventful light search of the RV.   The patrols were mainly young, friendly guys, some with Mexican roots and slight accents.   As usual there was quite a lot of interest in our trip and our being British, so many questions and some pleasant banter too.

Pretty soon though, we were back on our way heading along the scenic flat desert landscape of New Mexico with its long, straight roads that seem to stretch on ahead for miles, only disappearing out of view on the distant horizon.   On the final stretch of the journey we started to climb and snake around the base of the spectacular Guadalupe Mountains, which is also a National Park in its own right.  We headed into the entrance of the park to stay at a rather run down excuse for a campsite, but it happened to be the closest accommodation to the caves of Carlsbad.
We buckled down for a gusty night rocking side to side from the intermittent ambush of strong winds, and awoke early to drive the final few miles to the actual Caverns for their 8:30am opening.

You can either take an elevator down into the caverns, or opt for the more interesting and recommended "natural entrance" – a steep 1 mile downhill trail into the heart of the cavern.  Feeling fit and adventurous we did the latter, and it was certainly worth it!  Although I wouldn’t really fancy doing the reverse and hiking out of the cave - that would just be ridiculous!

When you've eventually descended as far as you can, you reach a "foyer" of sorts, from where you can head in various different directions into to the labyrinth of caves.  We paid a little extra to do the King’s Palace guided tour which started at 10am, so we had to rush the last bit of our mile long downhill entrance hike because I was dawdling too much taking pictures.

On the tour, as we admired each unique underground chamber, the knowledgeable ranger took us through some of the history of the caverns.  The earliest documented exploration of the caves was in 1898 by a 16 year old cowboy from Texas called Jim White.  He spent a lot of his youth secretly venturing into the vast caverns alone with just a simple lantern.  His interest to explore the cave may have been prompted by a spectacular performance at dusk during the summer months as nearly 400,000 free-tailed Mexican bats flee the cave each night, bursting from the open mouth of the chasm like, well, bats out of hell?  Unfortunately, the bats had all migrated to Mexico for winter, so no bats at dusk for us.

In 1923 Jim finally shared his discovery with the world and took a photographer into the cave to capture on camera “the Big Room”, which is the seventh largest chamber in the world.  An upside-down, grainy black and white print of the tremendous stalactites was published in the New York Times. This sparked huge interest in the magnificent geological discoveries to be found there and so further mapping, exploration and tourism began.  They also began to harvest the guano (bat shit, basically) to sell to the Californians as fertilizer.  Some people will literally buy any anything!

The formation of Carlsbad is slightly different and unique compared to the usual process of cave formation.  Over 250 million years ago, the area around Carlsbad Caverns was underwater in an inland sea complete with coral reef.  The sea eventually evaporated leaving behind deposits covering the original reef.   Tectonic plate movement caused the Guadeloupe Mountains to form, uplifting the reef bed.  The Caverns were formed as limestone rock was gradually eroded and dissolved by sulphuric acid which formed from a mixture of petroleum seeping upwards from an oil field deep underneath the limestone and oxygen from the ground/rain water soaking deeper into the rocks.

 
The intricate and appealing decoration of Carlsbad Caverns with stalactites, stalagmites and a variety of other formations known as soda straws, columns and draperies began more than 500,000 years ago.   Drop by drop as gravity did its thing, rainwater filtered downwards, dissolving a little limestone and absorbing the mineral calcite along the way.  Once it reached the open caverns below, each drop from ceiling to floor deposited a tiny blob of calcite.  Where water dripped slowly from the ceiling, soda straws and larger stalactites appeared. Water falling on the floor created the stalagmites. Remember stalac-“tites” cling “tight”-ly to the ceiling!

So that was your lesson in geology / speleology for the day!  Phew, I think I got that all right with a bit of help from Wikipedia…..

At another point in the tour, the ranger gave us quite an experience when all the lights were extinguished and everyone hushed.  As you can imagine, there is no natural light down there whatsoever and very little life, so the intense sensory deprivation and utter dead silence apart from the rhythmic dripping of one stalactite was eerie.  Weirdly, Adam liked the experience so much he joked he could happily stay the night (or maybe even longer!).  He was perfectly comfortable in the cool climate of approximately 56 degrees Fahrenheit and content to be temporarily isolated from the abundance of people, trucks and trains that have characterised our recent travels.  I, on the other hand, was wrapped up in layer upon layer and gloves and scarves and just about managing to prevent my extremities from numbing and almost freakin’ out!

When the tour ended, we took a break for lunch and headed back to the surface via the speedy elevator to eat our contraband packed lunch - there's no food allowed in the caves other than, coincidentally, the extortionately-priced, tiny sandwiches they sell.  Adam ate his sandwiches and then headed straight to the gift shop café for a burrito…#bottomlesspit #typicalWilliamstrait!!

 Our feet were already suffering as we had walked a few miles already, but we still had so much to see.  When we returned underground we headed in a different direction, aiming for the Big Room.  And wow; the Kings Palace was impressive, but the Big Room was just mind-blowing.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves - enjoy the chandeliers!

All in all, we had a fab day.  Such an immensely fascinating and visually pleasing place.  I took thousands of photos, most of them annoyingly ever-so-slightly blurry, as so often happens when photographing in poor light. I literally had to hold my breath for about 7 seconds and hold the camera SO still to get a clear shot, but I think they’re worth it.  Not bad for a bog-standard digital camera with lousy zoom!