To the bat cave ~:~ ~ ;~ ~:~

October 24, 2014: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM.

We’ve been looking forward to a day trip down to Carlsbad Caverns.  We drive out of the campground and turn onto US285 trekking south through Carlsbad, and then catch US180 to the park entrance.

 

Arriving at the parking lot we see a row of buses lined up.  We look at each other and say in unison, “Oh no, tourist buses!”  Neither of us is fond of being surrounded by masses of humanity.  Resigned to sharing the caverns with a multitude of other people, we gather our sweatshirts and camera and head to the front door.

Not only is the entrance and lobby full of people – most are school-aged children!  Great!  Field trip day. 

We visit with a ranger at the tour desk to see what options are available.  She tells us about the self-guided tour down the Natural Entrance, The Big Room tour (again, self-guided), and the Kings Palace ranger-guided tour.

“How many people in each ranger-guided tour?” we ask.

“Fifty-five people are on each tour,” she tells us.

“Alright, thanks for all the information.” 

We’re wondering if we get to choose our tourmates.  We can envision being on a tour with 50 children, a couple of chaperones . . .  and us.  We opt for guiding ourselves around the caverns.

The Natural Entrance route looks like a good starting point.  It’s 1-1/4 miles down to the Big Room.

A large outdoor amphitheater is located just behind this fence where you can watch the mass exodus of thousands Mexican free-tailed bats at dusk.

We start down the steep grade – sometimes as much as 20% – into the cavern.

We are only a few minutes into the entrance and behind and above us only a small ray of light can be seen.  The natural entrance descends over 750 feet.  We continue down the trail lit only by low lights along the way.

We first come to the bat cave which is only 200 feet below the surface.  It is shrouded in total darkness in another chamber.  We let the bats sleep and move on down the trail.  ~:~

“Did you know?  The 120 caves of Carlsbad Caverns National Park were carved out not by running water and streams like many limestone caves in the world, rather these caves were dissolved by very aggressive sulfuric acid.” – NPS

This formation is called Whales Mouth and is comprised of draperies and flowstone.

Jack starting through a narrow passage.

We see only the tip of Iceberg Rock.  A 400-million pound rock!

Indeed, the “tip of the iceberg”!  It’s impossible to take a photo that gives any sense of this size of this colossal rock.  Several minutes later after winding down the trail we arrive at the base of this monster.

The Big Room: The largest known natural limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere.

The floor space of The Big Room is the size of 14 football fields.  The trail is about a mile around the perimeter of the cave.  Note the outline of a 747 jetliner in the lower left corner of the map.  I wonder how many 747s would fit into this cave?  Click on the photo above to enlarge it and get a sense of the size compared to the 747.

For our viewing pleasure, beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and speleothems fill the cavern.  As we stand here in The Big Room, we are 75 stories below the surface.  Just a little freaky, I’d say.

New and amazing discoveries!

In 1986 cavers received permission to break through to a new level in the caverns.  This led to the discovery of Lechuguilla Cave, which extends over 112 miles.  Here’s an amazing tidbit of information. 

“Cave scientists have discovered microbes that produce an enzyme capable of destroying cancer cells.” – NPS

Our self-guided tour complete, we opt for the elevator back to the surface.  At 9 miles per hour we arrive at the visitor center in about one minute.

Looking across this serene landscape, who would ever guess what fascination lies below?  As a side note, all those children we were so concerned about?  Well, we met only a few people as we hiked down through the Natural Entrance.  The Big Room is so large we could occasionally hear a low buzzing sound like little bee hives moving through the cave.  We felt we pretty much had the cave to ourselves the entire day.  Awesome day to say the least! 

A day of spelunking behind us, we stop in Carlsbad for a delicious dinner at Yellow Brix Restaurant.

Ah.  Another fabulous day comes to a close.  Until next time – be safe.