Drop whatever you're doing, call your travel agent, book a flight to New Mexico, and visit Carlsbad Caverns.

Wow. Amazing. Simply amazing. I spent most of the morning and afternoon at the caverns, and enjoyed every minute of it. The park contains 83 separate caves, to be exact, including the country's deepest, and third longest, limestone cave (1,597 feet underground).

I visited three of the caves that are open to the general public. Natural Entrance, which, as you might have guessed, is the entrance to the caverns, and The Big Room, which is so large, it could hold 14 football fields. Both of these caves are self-guided tours, and can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half each. The third area was King's Palace, the lowest portion of the caves. It took roughly an hour and a half, is guided by a park ranger, and was my favorite part of the caverns.

At one point in the tour, we all sat down and the Park Ranger turned off the lights. You have never, ever experienced true and complete total darkness until you've experienced this. While the lights were out, we were asked to be quiet for a few moments. That's when we realized how absolutely silent it was, except for the infrequent distant sound of dripping water. We were told stories of early cave expeditions, and how difficult it must have been to make their way through this cave in the early 1900's when there were no lights, no handrails, and no concrete path. We also told the story of a man who had accidentally been left behind in the caves ... for fourteen hours. Total darkness. Total silence. When they finally found him, he had been banging rocks together. They assumed it was to help the rescue party locate him, but it was really because he couldn't take one more second of the silence.

At sunset every night, you can witness one of Carlsbad Caverns most spectacular sights. Hundreds of thousands of bats swirl out of the caves, into the night sky. (You can also come back at sunrise the next morning to see them return, if you wish.) Unfortunately, just as the bats started coming out, the weather turned severely bad and the crowd decided to leave. I don't get it. I'm in the middle of the desert, it's 91 degrees, and the one night I'm here to see this, it rains. Okay.. it didn't just rain. It thundered. Lightning. Wind. You name it. 14 inches of rain the whole year and I end up getting a whole chunk of it. What are the chances?

I feel I should point out that these photographs don't do the caverns justice. When you first walk into the caves, it takes a while for your eyes to adjust to the dim, colored lighting, which truly make the caverns stunningly beautiful. When you take pictures with a flash, it ruins the light and makes everything white, so please keep in mind that Carlsbad Caverns look much better than they do in these photographs.

Anyhow, I need to get to sleep. Checkout time is at noon, so I'll probably head out of here around 11. Godzilla opens tomorrow, so maybe I'll catch it at the local theater before I hit the road. I've been debating about whether or not to stay another day here, but I think I've had my fill of Carlsbad and it's time to move on. I'll probably end up visiting and staying overnight in Roswell, home to the infamous alleged UFO crash of July, 1947. Tomorrow should be interesting.

By the way, I've got ten Powerball tickets in my possession for Wednesday night's drawing. As you may or may not know, this Powerball's jackpot is $175,000,000. If by the smallest, incomprehensible chance I win... oh man. I think I'll end up doing this roadtrip thing for life!

See you on the road...

Previous  |  Next