Carlsbad Caverns

1/31/09 We spent one day and two nights at Carlsbad.

Weather - Very pleasant, clear skies, low 60's.

The KOA campground in Carlsbad was very large and I don't know how many sites they have but when we came in last night we got the next to last site available. I guess that we can be glad that we are traveling in the winter as the campgrounds have been pretty full especially in the tourist areas. In the summer it must take a little more planning and reservation making ahead of time.

This morning we headed down to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park which turned out to be about a 30 mile drive. With our Senior National Park Pass we had free entry. The pass is a great value for $10 and is good for lifetime access to all National Parks.

The Carlsbad people say that the Carlsbad Caverns are the best. Can't say myself as these are the first that I've visited. It was an interesting tour. The suggested way to see them is if you're physically able is to walk in and take the elevator out. It is a steep 900 foot descent down with many switchbacks in the trail to descend into the cave. During the summer time bats take up residence in the cave and they have an amplitheatre at the entrance to sit and watch an estimated 250,000 of them fly out in the evening.

As you get deeper into the cave you see more stalactites and stelagmites and unusual formations. All in all it's pretty spectatular. Down at the bottom is a large room that's over a quarter of a mile long. Besides the walking tours we took there are also guided tours where you don caving equipment and crawl through small passages, etc. We were OK with just doing what we did. To get back up they have an elevator to take you the 750 feet (about equivalent of 75 stories) up to the surface. You can also ride the elevator down if you don't want to hike down. The trail down used to be bidirectional but they have now made it one way down with the elevator up to minimize traffic on the trail.

We were both glad that we took the time to stop at Carlsbad, see the National Park and have a relaxing day. Inky was also glad to spend the day at the trailer and not travel today. We stopped by a WalMart and picked up a universal remote so that we could make the TV scan and find all the cable channels.