Southwest Vacation - Day 1

This year we had a very ambitious vacation scheduled...here is the preliminary route:

We headed out around noon on Friday, October 1.  Stopped for dinner at On The Border in Arlington, Texas and bedded down for the night in Big Spring, Texas around 11:30.  That left us about 4 hours to drive Saturday morning before our first destination....Carlsbad Caverns.  I took the first driving shift and as we crossed into New Mexico, I saw my favorite sign of the day...

Woo Hoo!  I also saw my first hitchhiker - in the center of the road!!  Not in the median, but stradling the white line between the two lanes.  Crazy!

Since we gained an hour with the time change, we got the Caverns around 11:00...then I saw THIS!

 

LEAST favorite sign of the trip!



ELEVATORS NOT WORKING -- ASSESS YOUR FITNESS!  Now you see, the "normal" tour for the caverns is that you get on an elevator, descend about 575 feet and get out in the Big Room the most famous area of the cave where you see amazing formations such as the Rock of Ages, the Lion's Tail, Hall of Giants, Top of the Cross and the Old Bat Roost...you walk the 1 1/4 mile trail through the Big Room and get back on the elevator and ride back to the surface.

There is also The Natural Entrance Trail which is a steep 1¼-mile descent equivalent to about 79 stories from the cave entrance to the Big Room. This one-hour tour is recommended only for those in good physical condition.



The Natural Entrance Trail leading into the cave.



Well we didn't drive 1,000 miles for my spelunking husband to just turn around and leave.  So we set out on

the Natural Entrance Trail...now getting to the bottom was easy-peasy...but once we got to the entrance of the Big Room, I had to assess my fitness level and decided that I better let Mark do that trail alone and save my energy for going back UP the steep 1¼-mile trail to get back to civilization.  Once Mark viewed the Big Room, we met up and headed back out of the cave. 

The level of my "physical fitness" and the fact it was 2:00 and we had not eaten that day, did not couple well with a "strenuous" hike out of the cavern.  About 10 minutes into our ascent, my heart started beating out of my chest, I felt dizzy and thought I was going to faint.  I had to sit down right where I stood.  Now if you've ever been in a cave, you know the ground is cold, damp and could be covered with guano - aka bat poo.  UGH!    After a few minutes I recovered and set out again having to stop every few minutes to take deep breaths and rest.  They said to allow 2 hours for the return trip and it only took us about an hour and 15 minutes, so SURELY I wasn't the slowest person to come out!  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)  We headed straight to the onsite restaurant for some nourishment!

One of the highlights of the park is the Bat Flight at sunset.  This is where the bats that live in the cave go out at night to find water and eat insects.  The first thing they do is head for the springs to drink and find insects for supper.  They return to the cave before sunrise. 

Before the bat flight we had a few hours to kill so we browsed the shop, bought a few souvenirs and adopted a bat -- Mark named him Pablo because he is a Mexican Free Tail Bat.

It was so nice outside (in the shade) we decided to head on down to the amphlitheater and hang out until the bat flight.  We just kicked back and read on our Kindles.

Then about 6:00 it was showtime - after a brief Ranger program, at which time we were told no photographs (it disturbs the bats), no noise, no standing, no food or drink, blah blah blah...at 6:32 the bats started flying out of the cave - after 40 minutes, the bats were still coming out, but it was too dark to see so we left.  They sometimes fly out for about 2 hours.  One can’t help but wonder, “how many bats are there?” The challenge is in how to figure out an accurate number, or even a good guess. Trying to count the bats emerging from the cave is like trying to count the number of grains of salt coming out of a shaker—too many at once.   But the best scientific guess is about 400,000.

It was amazing, but after seeing the flight, I told Mark - Had I known there were that many critters in there, you would have been going in alone!

We ended the night after about an hour drive up to Roswell, NM.  We were so tired, we literally walked into our hotel room and went to bed within minutes!