carlsbad caverns national park

in carlsbad i found a walmart parking lot to sleep.  once again, i was right next two two huge rv's also spending the night there.

then i spent the day exploring beneath the surface...

carlsbad is in southeast new mexico.   about 30 miles southwest of town are the carlsbad caverns, which were discovered in the early 1900s. the caves are well known for their enormity and multitude of beautiful natural decorations, and also for the thousands of bats that live in them making a scene during their evening commute to the sky. unfortunately, since it's off season, the bats were vacationing in mexico, which meant I didn't get to watch their impressive rush hour flurry. the good thing is that I had very few people around me while i enjoyed my stroll through the caverns.

there were two self guided (ie free) tours. one went from the natural entrance and wound its way down to about 750 feet below ground where the second tour begins.

me at the natural entrance.

the second tour takes a 1.5 mile level-ish loop around what is called the 'big room.'

the cavern has enough well-placed lighting to highlight the formations, while at the same time keeping it fairly dark overall.  the power went out for a couple minutes which was awesome, because i got to see it almost completely dark with only a few obnoxious emergency lighting on.  i found out later that the power went out because of the strong winds outside.  perfect timing for me!

at the end of the second tour, you have to take an elevator back to the surface.

these two tours were great, but the paved and railinged path was too tame for my hopes of cave exploring. so then i paid $20 (that's a LOT for me right now) to go on a three-hour guided tour of the lower, "undeveloped" sections another 100 feet below the big room. the tour was more satisfying, letting me see more of the cave and take a closer look at some formations. part of it required or allowed a little bit of ducking or crawling through smaller passages, all while trying to avoid damaging the pristine condition of everything nearbye. oh and I mean pristine; in fact, volunteer rangers comb through the cave regularly to find and extract even the smallest of materials that are unnatural to the cave, including LINT that secretly falls from people's clothing.

some parts of the path had ladders or ropes to go up and down.

some parts required squeezing through small crevices.

some parts required crouching.

crawling.

it was fun and much more satisfying.

this was definitely a cool place to see.  thanks to everyone who suggested it!