Carlsbad Caverns

Well, my 6 week journey through the West is almost over... today was the last destination in my plans before heading home. That destination was Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southern New Mexico. After an awesome week spent in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and White Sands National Monument with my friend Roger, we each went our separate ways... Roger headed for home and I headed for Carlsbad.



To be honest, Carlsbad was a spur of the moment decision for me. Since I still had some flexibility before heading home and Carlsbad was not that far away, I decided to head down and check it out. Boy, am I glad that I did! Hiking through Carlsbad Caverns was REALLY cool! I was a little disappointed when I arrived at the park, as the HUGE parking lot was almost filled to capacity. But, I drove all that way to see the cavern so I wasn't going to let the crowd deter me. I arrived at the park in the early afternoon and as it turns out its a good thing I didn't arrive any later than I did. While inquiring about the cave at the information desk the ranger told me they were closing the natural entrance in 5 minutes. So, I had to hustle to get to the entrance in time! I was part of the last group allowed to enter the cave and after our brief 3-minute orientation talk we were sent on our way.



The first section of the hike is VERY steep... the trail switchbacks down through the entrance of the cavern and from the top to the bottom there is an 850 foot elevation loss. "Weak knees are common" the ranger had told us, and he wasn't kidding! By the time I was halfway down my knees were already getting tired. After the first dozen or so switchbacks you are already deep enough down into the cavern that there is very little natural light, and you start to see the first of the artificial light sources that park service staff have installed along the trail. The trail, by the way, is superb. Park service staff have really done an incredible job of constructing the trail through this most forbidding of environments. The trail surface is very smooth and there are nice, sturdy railings lining both sides of the path.



After passing the first few artificial light sources a sign informed visitors that beyond this point, without artificial light, it would be totally dark in the cave and you'd be unable to see. The trail then continued down, down and further down. Switchback after switchback passed, and I soon began to question whether or not the 850 foot elevation number was accurate. It felt like I had descended 1,000 feet or more. Soon, though, the trail leveled out and I was at the "bottom". The hiking became much easier... with some gentle "rolling" terrain and a few short sets of stairs here and there.



Not long after reaching the bottom, the natural formations along the trail began to get a lot more interesting. During the descent into the cavern, the trail passed through some pretty cool and sometimes quite large "rooms", but the walls and ceilings were rather smooth and devoid of any interesting geologic formations. That all changed the closer I got to the bottom, however. Now there were stalagmites and stalactites interspersed along the trail. Walking along this path nearly 1,000 feet below the surface, I felt like I was in my own version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth"!



After walking for about a mile and a half, I arrived in the "Big Room", which is the showcase of Carlsbad Caverns. The "Big Room" is loaded with out-of-this-world geologic formations, and the trail does a large loop throughout the Big Room, passing within a few feet of many of these formations.



Above: Look closely at this image and you can see some people standing near the lower right corner of the image... this gives you an idea as to how big the cavern is!

The "Big Room" is the 3rd largest cave chamber in the Americas, and the 7th largest in the world. It is a natural limestone chamber which is almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide and 350 feet high at the highest point. When you are in one of these larger areas of the room and you see the tiny silhouettes of other hikers in the distance, you really get a sense of how immense this cavern is.



After walking the loop around the Big Room and taking several pictures, it was time to head to the surface. Thankfully, there is an elevator that provides quick and convenient access back to the surface. After all the hiking I did around White Sands, and the hike down into and throughout the cavern, I'm not sure I could have climbed 850 feet back to the surface :-) Hiking Carlsbad Caverns was an awesome experience, one that I would highly recommend!



And so comes the end of my journey throughout the West. This is my last entry from the trip... all I have left to do is make the drive from southern New Mexico back to northeast Minnesota. My plan is to stay in Roswell, New Mexico tonight then tomorrow hit the road for home. I don't have any photo stops planned along the route home, so my next blog entry will probably be from the shores of Lake Superior once again. If you've been following along on my journey these past 6 weeks, I hope you've enjoyed the journey (and the images!) and I thank you for following along. Bye for now!

-Travis