We made it to Carlsbad Caverns with little trouble- after discovering that much of Texas lives up to my father’s descriptions of roads so flat and straight that you could almost tie the steering wheel in place and go take a nap. The visitor’s center for the main caverns is built on the top of the Guadalupe mountain range which juts up out of the barren landscape of the New Mexico desert. To reach the visitors center the park road winds you through a steep and rocky gorge that goes up for miles. The main visitor’s entrance to the caves is via an elevator shaft that was carved straight through the rock- 756 feet straight down. It was completed in the 1930’s as a part of the “New Deal” and is still in use today. The main caverns were enormous with hundreds of formations illuminated by electric lights. Similar to the Lauray caverns in Pennsylvania, but at another scale entirely- the damp, handrail-lined path winds through the main caverns for miles!
Once we arrived and found out where we would have to go to camp for the night, we caught the last elevator trip down into the caverns and proceeded to wind our way through the stunning darkness. After returning to the surface, we made our way over to the ampitheater where the bat-flight show usually takes place at the natural entrance to the cave. Typically, twice daily over 10,000 Mexican Free-Tailed Bats would depart from the cave in a dense cloud to gorge themselves on insects- consuming as much as half their body weight before dawn. To our great disappointment, the mighty swarm of bats was barely perceptible. The area surrounding the caverns that typically supplies the insects for the bat population had been devoid of rain since last September, and resident bat population had moved on. Very tired, we left the park and found our pull-off on the side of a service road on the nearby Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.
Fortunately, we were able to secure tickets on the next day’s special guided tour of the Slaughter Canyon Cave. As we woke up and began making breakfast on the dusty dry ground, I pointed out that a Javelina (a native type of wild pigboar) had emerged from the scrub about 100 yards downwind of us to enjoy the first rays of sunshine. As Sam saw him, she promptly jumped into the car and closed the door fearing that similarly to recent television shows that he would charge directly at us- while I tried to capture a picture of him. He left us alone, however, and continued his trip into taller brush. We were also visited by tiny armored train- a millipede decided to make his way through our camp as we were packing up. We drove to the nearby canyon and booked it to the cave entrance and were the last people to arrive. As we descended into the cave, everyone in the group noticed immediately how much more exciting and mysterious it could be when all you could see was the part of the cave illuminated by your flashlight.
Thankfully we were well prepared having both a headlamp and a powerfull flashlight each. My new dive-light proved to be more of a light cannon than a flashlight, allowing us to see parts of the cave far into the gloom. As we wound our way deeper into the caverns, we took a break near the feature known as “The Monarch,” which is the third largest column formation in the world- extending from floor to ceiling over 93 feet tall. While we rested we took a moment to turn out all the lights and allow our eyes to adjust completely to the darkness. After a few minutes the ranger showed us what it was like for the first cave explorers who saw the cave by candle light. We were also shown how calcite- the material that most all of the cave formations were made of- would glow for a while after being “charged up” by a bright light.
Our caving adventures completed, it was time to move on to the next stop- White Sands National Monument, another 5 hour drive away.
We made it to Carlsbad Caverns with little trouble- after discovering that much of Texas lives up to my father’s descriptions of roads so flat and straight that you could almost tie the steering wheel in place and go take a nap. The visitor’s center for the main caverns is built on the top of the Guadalupe mountain range which juts up out of the barren landscape of the New Mexico desert. To reach the visitors center the park road winds you through a steep and rocky gorge that goes up for miles. The main visitor’s entrance to the caves is via an elevator shaft that was carved straight through the rock- 756 feet straight down. It was completed in the 1930’s as a part of the “New Deal” and is still in use today. The main caverns were enormous with hundreds of formations illuminated by electric lights. Similar to the Lauray caverns in Pennsylvania, but at another scale entirely- the damp, handrail-lined path winds through the main caverns for miles! 
Once we arrived and found out where we would have to go to camp for the night, we caught the last elevator trip down into the caverns and proceeded to wind our way through the stunning darkness. After returning to the surface, we made our way over to the ampitheater where the bat-flight show usually takes place at the natural entrance to the cave. Typically, twice daily over 10,000 Mexican Free-Tailed Bats would depart from the cave in a dense cloud to gorge themselves on insects- consuming as much as half their body weight before dawn. To our great disappointment, the mighty swarm of bats was barely perceptible. The area surrounding the caverns that typically supplies the insects for the bat population had been devoid of rain since last September, and resident bat population had moved on. Very tired, we left the park and found our pull-off on the side of a service road on the nearby Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.
Fortunately, we were able to secure tickets on the next day’s special guided tour of the Slaughter Canyon Cave. As we woke up and began making breakfast on the dusty dry ground, I pointed out that a Javelina (a native type of wild pigboar) had emerged from the scrub about 100 yards downwind of us to enjoy the first rays of sunshine. As Sam saw him, she promptly jumped into the car and closed the door fearing that similarly to recent television shows that he would charge directly at us- while I tried to capture a picture of him. He left us alone, however, and continued his trip into taller brush. We were also visited by tiny armored train- a millipede decided to make his way through our camp as we were packing up. We drove to the nearby canyon and booked it to the cave entrance and were the last people to arrive. As we descended into the cave, everyone in the group noticed immediately how much more exciting and mysterious it could be when all you could see was the part of the cave illuminated by your flashlight. 
Thankfully we were well prepared having both a headlamp and a powerfull flashlight each. My new dive-light proved to be more of a light cannon than a flashlight, allowing us to see parts of the cave far into the gloom. As we wound our way deeper into the caverns, we took a break near the feature known as “The Monarch,” which is the third largest column formation in the world- extending from floor to ceiling over 93 feet tall. While we rested we took a moment to turn out all the lights and allow our eyes to adjust completely to the darkness. After a few minutes the ranger showed us what it was like for the first cave explorers who saw the cave by candle light. We were also shown how calcite- the material that most all of the cave formations were made of- would glow for a while after being “charged up” by a bright light.
Our caving adventures completed, it was time to move on to the next stop- White Sands National Monument, another 5 hour drive away.
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