Day 35 – 38: CARLSBAD, New Mexico

Our first stop was Carlsbad.  We stayed here for four nights.  We explored the Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the Living Zoo and Desert State Park.  We have never been to Roswell so on one of the days, we drove about 60 miles north to check out this city.  We visited the Roswell Museum and Art Center and of course the UFO Museum.

April 7 – 10: We stayed at the Carlsbad KOA.  This KOA is nicely laid out with 100+ sites.  All pull-thru.  Our site was very nice and spacious. We had free WiFi that was a strong signal.  No cable TV though, but we got the local stations.  There was a small book shelf with books for exchange.  I found 2 books to exchange.

Crystal, Dandy and Helene waiting for their bedtime snack.

CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK

Carlsbad Caverns was first explored by a young boy named Jim White.  He used a homemade wire ladder to go down into the cave.  As he grew older he named most of the rooms and formations.  These names are still being used to today.  In 1923 Carlsbad Caverns was made into a National Monument.  In 1930 it was named a National Park.  Today there are two areas of the cave that are self guided; the ‘Natural Entrance’ (1 mile and 1.5 hours), and the “Big Room’ (1 mile and 1 hour.  These two areas are most of the cave.  The guided tours take you deeper underground.  One of them is a lot of crawling and climbing with head lamps.  We took that tour 10 years ago when we first visited this place.  This time we took our time and did the self guided tours.  

In the evening, thousands of Mexican free-tail bats fly out of the Natural Entrance to look for food.  There are stone benches in a semi-circle at this entrance for viewing the bat flights.  The bat cave is located 200 feet below the surface.  Of course no one is allowed in this area.  You travel down a switch back path straight down to 200 feet and then you continue slowly descending for another 550 feet until you reach the big room.  It is quite a walk, but you see some great formations on the way.

   Bat viewingh                                                 The Natural Entrance

200 feet, straight down to where the bat cave is.

h Looking back up to the entrance.

             Draperies h                                                     Whales Mouth

The BLOB??  

750 feet down, 1 mile and 1.5 hours later you are at the bottom and the start of the Big Room.  How in the hell are we going to get back up.  Wait, there are elevators here, and bathrooms, and a gift shop, oh and a snack bar.  Whew!  We just need to walk a few feet into the semi darkness and you get away from all that.  The tour through the Big Room is amazing with lots of formations, cave pools, dripping stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, draperies, flowstone, columns, and popcorns oh my.

h Lion’s Tail

h What would you call this formation??

Lily Pad h 

h Painted Grotto

The whole map of the self-guided tours.

LIVING DESERT ZOO & GARDENS STATE PARK

The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens is a state operated zoo and botanical garden.  It specializes in native species of the Chihuahuan Desert.  It was a hot day when we visited, so most of the animals were hunkered down in a cool place and out of sight.  But the walk through the gardens was pretty.

h SELENITE is the pure, crystalline form of gypsum rock.  

           Bald Eagle h

            Reptile House                      Western Diamondback Rattlesnake         

ROSWELL, New Mexico

Roswell’s economy is based on agriculture, manufacturing, oil production, and little green men.  Really, that’s what it says in the AAA tour book.  That’s why we took a side trip there; to see if we can find any little green men.  And we did.  All over town there are little green men.  

UFO Museum and Research Center

We visited the UFO Museum and Research Center which showcases a variety of exhibits documenting what has become to known as the “Roswell Incident”; the military’s supposed recovery and subsequent cover-up of extraterrestrial debris from a local ranch in 1947.  After that there were several sightings and abductions all over the country.  The museum was interesting and really made you think “could it be true”...  But you can see a lot of “holes” in the stories.

Roswell Museum and Art Center

We had the time to visit this art center.  It was a highlighted GEM in the tour book.  This museum showcases Southwestern culture through historical artifacts and fine art.  We enjoyed our time there.  There was some colorful and interesting artwork. 

Oil on wood panel by William Goodman – “Oddy Nocky” 1970-1

Oil on canvas by Elmer Schooley – “Yellow Tail Under the Kerria  1971

(The Kerria is a flowering shrub native to China and Japan).

Next stop is Santa Fe!