Carlsbad Caverns, July 6th, 2010

During our summer travels in the U.S., we made a side trip from Santa Fe down to the Carlsbad Caverns. It's a place I've wanted to go for as long as I can remember, so I was very excited. Devin had gone there many years ago as a child. David, of course, was excited also.

Before getting to Carlsbad, though, we stopped in Clovis to visit some friends from Thailand. We stopped at Joe's Boot Shop, owned by the parents of our friends, then we had some lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. We had a blast visiting, and we laughed about how far, culturally, this is from Thailand. Joe bought his first pair of cowboy boots, and tried his hand at roping a "calf" in the shop.

Then on to Carlsbad. The caverns were fantastic. We hiked down the natural entrance, about 800 feet down on a paved trail. I marveled at the way they built the trail. All the materials have to be hand-carried in. The trail was also lit all over. I think I read that 19 miles of cable are in the caverns. The cool thing about the lighting is that they cover it with soil and rocks to blend it into the background. It's as natural as artificial lighting can be. I'd love to be inside the cave at some point with all the lights turned out. Complete darkness.

We rented an audio guide, and David would listen to it at each numbered listening station. As a parent, it was cool to see him really get into that. We also went to the bat show at dusk. The bats - about 500,000 of them - swarm out of the cavern to hunt for moths. David also earned his Junior Ranger Badge for Carlsbad Caverns National Park. His third badge. Woohoo!

Words and pictures just don't do this place justice. If you are ever in the area, you NEED to see the caverns. I do have some pictures below, but they really aren't very good.

A few pictures are below. Click on the image to see a larger version.