Now THAT'S a Cave!

The Crazy Visitor Center Lady also said the last elevator down to the cave at Carlsbad left at 3:30 so we busted butt to get to Carlsbad in time. We put Roswell to our "rudder" and almost broke the speed limit to get there (Carlsbad is about 2 hours from Roswell, plus another half-hour to the caves). The landscape turned from dusty grassland to desert with towering yuccas and prickly pear cactus.


Naturally, once we hit Carlsbad, construction was being done on the main drag through town, which put us way behind schedule! We had only 20 minutes to make a 30 minute trip south to the caves! Would we make it in time?!

Thank God we did; we wound our way through the national park, marveling at the beautiful scenery as best we could as we whizzed past it all. We arrived at the visitor's center with 2 minutes to spare; Blake dropped me off at the front and went to park. I bought both our tickets (which, by the way are like 6 bucks for 3 days- totally worth it!!) and waited nervously for him. With one minute to go he arrived and we made it into the last elevator! Hooray!! Down, down, down we went. Ears were popping and climate was cooling to a very comfortable 56 degrees!

The park closed at 5 pm so we had to hurry thru and look at as much as possible. We didn't bring the tripod with us so not all our shots ended up like we wanted. As we made our way thru we decided that an hour-and-a-half wasn't nearly enough time and that we'd have to come back the next day, with our tripod! We drove back to Carlsbad, took in a late dinner at Chili's and spent the worst night at Motel 6 EVAR. But we were only there to sleep, for the next day held this in store for us:

If there is a way to lend depth-perception to cave photographs I sure would like to know how to do it! That was a big problem I had with these pictures. I couldn't get a feel for depth and sometimes texture with these... then again, maybe it was the subject matter! :-)

I shall give you some neato photos:

I think this photo requires a background story before my mother calls me up and asks what's wrong with me... You know what that looks like, right? As Blake & I were wandering through the main room we occasionally would pass and get passed on the trails by various people. Behind us were three younger guys, maybe in their early 20's. (First off, need I say more??) "Heh heh..." came a quiet voice behind us upon approaching this particular formation, "look - it's Titty Rock!" One guy said to his friends (My apologies to Mom). Click, click went their digital cameras. They spent a lot of time there. And yes, we passed them.

Really cool stalactite (holds "tite" to the ceiling, remember?)

Shot from the highest point in the main room; they say you can fit a Boeing 747 in here!


Stalag-mite make it to the top! :)

Doll's Theater

We wrapped up our cave tour about noon; we still had to make it home to Denver that evening for work in the morning. We did consider going south another 20 miles just to say we visited Texas too, but in the end decided against it. The ride back was uneventful (aside from realizing 100 miles north of Carlsbad that we forgot our pillows at the motel) and we got into Denver at 10:30 that night. Blake went to work the next day and I stayed home the rest of the week to do laundry, run errands and collect Pearl. All in all, it was an awesome trip; we had the best time together, and came home with great memories to last a lifetime. Would I recommend New Mexico for your next vacation destination? YOU BET!! Just go in the fall, and fit White Sands National Monument into your plans and take lots of pictures for me!