Day 8 - Carlsbad Caverns National Park

"Its opener, out there, in the wide, open air"

Dr. Seuss - Oh, the Places You'll Go!

We are officially on the second leg of the trip, the Southwest!  Though, this was the day of the trip I dreaded the most.  Leaving San Antonio means a 2 days stretch covering 1100 miles with an estimated 18 hrs of driving time.  The drive will leave us at one of the seven wonders of the natural world, so it'll be worth it.  Along the way I scheduled stops in Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell and Petrified Forest National Park.  Fortunately, the section of I-10 west of San Antonio has a speed limit of 80 mph.  Texas means business, no time for that wimpy reckless driving law in Virginia (yeah that ticket still burns a little).  This speed limit is especially important in West Texas, as this is the area of the country that asks "hey, want to be in a real life horror movie?"  Tremors and Texas Chainsaw Massacre come to mind. 

We left San Antonio early in the morning and headed westward, wasting no time with stops other than for gas.  It took one full tank of gas to make it to New Mexico, but to get there we had to leave the comfort of the interstate and start using the types of roads you're more likely to conjure up in your head when you think of the term "road trip."  Now while I have had this route mapped out for months, making the turn onto some of these roads had me doubting the shortcuts Apple and Google Maps had laid out for us.  My dad and Andy seemed even more doubtful.  There is nothing out here but roads and flat countryside.  You can see for miles upon miles in every direction.  Sticking the highways feels sort of safe, but the idea of turning down one of the perpendicular roads is scary.  There are no gas stations on these roads.  The technology was right, the route took us straight to the entrance of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains.  

Route 369

As has become customary, we jumped out of the car to get a picture in front of the park entrance sign.  That was when the 100 degree temperature hit us.  A week ago this would have left us drenched in sweat, but it is so dry here, we didn't sweat one drop.  The parks entrance is a 7-mile road that snakes upward into the mountain, and finally spits you out at the top of the mountain at the visitors center with an awesome view of the valley below and to the south, El Capitan at the Gaudalupe Mountains National Park (not to be confused by the one in Yosemite, which I was confused by prior to a wikipedia search).  There are two ways to enter the caverns, a steep hike through the natural entrance or an elevator ride down 750 feet to the floor of the cavern.  Due to dad's hip issues, we opted for the elevator.  We plunged at 9 miles an hour to a depth 5 times as low as the Statue of Liberty is tall.  

In the distance, El Capitan in the Guadalupe Mountains

When the elevator doors opened we were instantly cooled by the 54 degree temperature of the cave.  Down in the cave they have a snack shop and sell flashlights, but our eyes were able to adjust and we did just fine without the aid of flashlights.  We walked the Big Room trail which wound through a maze of stalagmites and stalactites.  The big room is the 7th largest cave chamber in the world (at least as far as we've explored caves).  It covers the area of 6 football fields.  It was an extremely photogenic cave that required the steadiest of hands in order for the pictures to come out crisp and clear.   After 2 hours of dark dampness we headed for the surface.  It was only 4:30 but the other main attraction the bat flight was not until 7:45.  The bat flight is a daily event in which the bats of the cave leave through the main entrance all at once to find food.  This always occurs at dusk.  Various park rangers suggested that there would be anywhere from 100,000 to 3 million bats.  Unfortunately, there has been a 3 year drought in this area, so the bats have migrated away.  We were not privy to this information until we had already waited all afternoon, just moments before the flight.  There was a Q&A with a ranger prior to the flight and when asked for the number of bats, she said about one to two thousand.  They built up the flight, but ultimately there was nothing amazing about watching a thousands bats fly out of a cave.

Hall of the Giants

After our stop at Carlsbad, we continued north to Roswell, NM.  We got in late, so we did not really do much to explore the area.  As I had hoped there was a enough cheesy UFO-related decorations around town to make this a worthwhile road trip destination.  The McDonalds in town even has a UFO playground attached to it.  Tomorrow continues our journey to the Grand Canyon.  We have 9 hours of driving, including a stop at the Petrified Forest.  From here on out we will be camping, so my ability to blog may be limited until Las Vegas on Thursday, but I'll try to find away to keep you all updated as often as possible.

Stats:

Miles Driven: 2710

States: PA, MD, WV, VA, TN, NC, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM

National Parks: 3

Photos Taken: 1631

Number of bugs splattered on my windshield: 183.5

Coldest Daytime Temp: 54 degrees F

Depth of guano underneath the bats roost: 40 feet!

UFO sited: 0