Carlsbad Caverns - Carlsbad, NM

I was on the road to Carlsbad Caverns by 7:00AM. With that and the one hour I would gain when I entered the Mountain time zone, things were looking good. I stopped for coffee and gas along the way and munched on snacks in the car, which allowed me to arrive at Carlsbad National Park around 2:00 – plenty of time. I’ve got to say though, there is a whole lot of nothing between Austin and Carlsbad. It really drove home the vastness of our country. I’ve lived on the East Coast my entire life, so I am used to there being stuff everywhere.

Once there, I went ahead and purchased a National Parks pass there since I would be visiting several during the next week. Plus, my hope is that it gives me incentive to go to Yosemite at least a couple of times during the next year. I’ll have to do a search of others close enough to the Bay Area to potentially make weekend trips out of.

First off, the entrance fee to Carlsbad Caverns is only $6 and it’s good for 3 days – what a deal! The entrance fee for the Ozark caverns was the same and it was a one time thing. I somehow don’t think the Ozarks even come remotely close to comparing to the awesomeness of Carlsbad Caverns. They were incredible. I took a lot of photos, but being that they are caverns, the lighting sucked. I’m not a big fan of flash photography because I don’t like the reflection of the flash coming off of the things I am taking pictures of. I was maybe a third of the way down when a finally remembered that I had a tripod with me, so non-flash photos were an option. From that point on, I only took non-flash photos. Thank goodness I have a bendy tripod because I needed it to latch onto the hand railings and signs in order to get some odd angles. As of my writing this, I haven’t been able to look at the photos on my computer yet to see if they came out, so there is a chance that I have all crappy photos. They looked good on my camera, but the 1.5” LCD never quite gives all the important details. I spent over 2 hours in the caverns. It took about an hour to walk down to the bottom, and then I spent a long time walking around “The Big Room.” I didn’t take any of the guided tours, but I feel like a saw enough. It is around 58 degrees down there, it’s humid, but after that long I was starting to get cold and ready to head back up to the surface. They have at least one hiking trail there as well, so filling up two days would be very doable, but I didn’t have the time for that. Going through Carlsbad caverns was a last minute decision since I had some extra time in my itinerary, not the focus of my trip. I am so glad I did though!

A view of what I drove through to get to Carlsbad Caverns

The entrance to the caverns

Looking back up to the entrance - good bye daylight

A formation called the Whale's Mouth

Weird nubby things

Starting to get close to "The Big Room" (and I am now using my tripod - yay! I got some good ones!)

Scary! It makes me think of that Poltergrist movie for some reason

A view of "The Big Room"

Looking straight up at the "ceiling"

Formation called the "The Chandelier"

More of "The Big Room"

Formation called the "Rock of Ages"

Another scary photo

When I emerged from the Caverns, it was clear that the weather had changed. There was a huge, very dark cloud that appeared to be pretty close. I could also see lightning, so I was a bit worried about my camping plans for that evening.

Cactus flower on the park gounds

After leaving the park, I drove about an hour north to Brantley Lake State Park to camp for the night. I hadn’t run into the storm, so I decided to chance it. It never did rain on me, and I later realized that because Southeastern NM is so flat, you can see weather systems that are really far away from you.

It was a bit weird getting into the park because you basically turn off the main road and start driving into the desert. It was a bit disconcerting but I trusted the signs. Sure enough, there was a park at the end of them. It was a nice campground, but there wasn’t much else besides the lake to do out there. I set up camp, ate dinner, and showered before wandering around a bit to take pictures. The sun was starting to set at this point and it was really pretty. I read for a while but ended up going to sleep pretty early. It all worked out though because I awoke really early and set off.

A rainbow!

Sunset at Brantley Lake State Park

The moon over the park