Journey to the Center of the Earth

I last visited Carlsbad Caverns almost 30 years ago, so my memory of what the caves looked like was a bit faded, to say the least. We arrived at the visitor's center about 10 am, and got our entrance tickets. We had hoped to be able to get tickets for at least one of the guided tours, but they were all sold out for the day, so we only had the two self-guided tours available. This turned out to be a good thing, as a guided tour probably would have been too much of a good thing, especially for my MIL.

The first of the self-guided tour is a walk down into the cavern through the natural entrance. This route include a vertical drop of 750 feet, with a number of steep descents. It took us until almost noon to reach the "Big Room" area of the cavern, winding our way ever downward through the maze of passages. Once we reached the main portion of the cavern, we paused for a quick rest, and then proceeded on the 1.5 mile walk around the Big Room. I can't say that Carlsbad has the most impressive formations I've ever seen (I'd have to give Luray Caverns, in Virginia, that title), but the Big Room lives up to its name, with soaring ceilings and huge chambers that are truly awe inspiring. It took us over two hours to make the circuit of the tour, partly because we stopped frequently to enjoy the views, and partly so I could repeatedly set up my tripod for long exposure photos. I took a lot of photos, but I wish I had brought my better (albeit heavier) tripod with me, as the lighter one wasn't really stable enough, and many of my shots ended up blurred.

After finishing the tour, we caught the elevator to ascend the 75 stories to the surface, where we ate a light picnic lunch before driving north to Roswell, NM.