Wednesday May 5, 2010

We were on the road early again today and drove the 26 miles to Carlsbad Caverns. The caverns are located in southeast corner of New Mexico. Obviously, the caverns have been there for untold thousands of years. Native Americans new of them and in fact there are ancient drawings in the caves. When you visit the caves, you have your choice of entering at the natural opening and descending 800 feet, or you can take the elevator located in the Visitors’ Center. There are several different tours, or you can opt to take a self-guided tour. The latter was our choice, as we wanted to move at our own pace. The National Parks Service does rent small units that look like a TV remote. At each numbered station in the cavern, you click the corresponding number on the “remote” and the embedded chip inside tells you all about the stop. That was perfect. We received the requisite lecture from a park ranger about not touching the formations, disposing of gum, candy, wrappers, etc. Sad that the lecture needs to be given.

We enter the caverns and it is truly breathtaking. There are occasional incandescent lights but overall it is quite dark. In fact, we had great difficulty obtaining a shutter speed that would assure good pictures. We figured if we got just one or two great shots, it would be fantastic. As you can see, we did get a few good ones.

We embarked on the 1.5-mile walk. Temperature in the caves was 56 degrees and very humid. I walked in with curled hair and left with a poker straight “do”. Every twist and turn brought another “ooh” or “ahh”. These caverns are very different from those you may have visited in the East. Carlsbad Caverns was created with sulphuric acid water, which made them much, much larger. Out East, caverns are more like hallways. These are hundreds of feet high. The stalactites and stalagmites are ginormous. They are created from dripping water. Tiny drops of water create stalactites (those looking like icicles hanging from the ceiling) and stalagmites are made by larger amounts of water. The larger amounts of water make pointy mounds on the floor of the caverns. Most are white from the gypsum of which they are comprised. Sometimes, they are colored by magnesium (makes them black) and some are reddish from iron content.

A man named Jim White explored the caves in the late 1800’s. He and his friends saw bats coming in and out of the caves. He came back late one day with a kerosene lamp and explored a little. The enormity of the caves frightened him. His curiosity got the best of him and he came back again and again and developed “landmarks” within to find his way. He even gave some of the landmarks special names. He used a wire l

adder to continue his exploration.

Once leaving the caverns, we headed towards White Sands National

Monument. We drove through Texas again, re entering New Mexico near El Paso. About 15 miles north of El Paso, a makeshift checkpoint was created. We entered a quonset hut frame. The border patrol officer looked inside the motor home and asked us if we were traveling alone. When we said, “yes” he motioned us ahead. Interesting.

We parked in a Walmart parking lot for the night after we couldn’t find a campground that offered good Internet service. We’ll just use our wireless card to surf and our generator to watch a little television. Tomorrow, the glorious White Sands.