{"id":617,"date":"2012-10-18T14:08:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T14:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retired-openroad.us\/?p=617"},"modified":"2023-05-20T20:58:23","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T20:58:23","slug":"carlsbad-nm-the-carlsbad-caverns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retired-openroad.us\/?p=617","title":{"rendered":"Carlsbad, NM – the Carlsbad Caverns"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had a lot of fun visiting the grandkids in Casa Grande, AZ, and then we moved on to Carlsbad, NM.\u00a0 Rather than drive the whole way in one long day we split the drive and stopped for one night mid-way.\u00a0 As we were nearing the Guadalupe Mountain range (a very short and mostly small range but still the highest point in New Mexico) Jeff was very interested in the formation at the highest end-peak and so he took a couple of pictures of it.\u00a0 Also, at the bottom of the highest end-peak was a huge salt flat that apparently used to be a lake, you’ll see a picture of that as well.\u00a0 It was interesting to see that most of the landscape around here is very flat, and in the middle of it is this mountain range sticking up!<\/p>\n

We visited the Carlsbad Caverns<\/a> yesterday with a self-guided tour of “The Big Room”.\u00a0 Later today we’ll go back and do a ranger-guided tour of “The King’s Palace”.<\/p>\n

It’s an amazing place!\u00a0 If you haven’t been there, you need to add this to your bucket list for sure!\u00a0 Hikers can go through the natural entrance and down through the bat cave to get to the caverns which are 750 ft below ground.\u00a0 We chose to take the elevator and were there in less than 1 minute!\u00a0 The national park service did a great job of placing walkways with good railings throughout the areas that visitors can go in, without interfering too much with the natural setting.\u00a0 A lot of the time we couldn’t see the railings more than a few feet behind and in front of us.\u00a0 And, because this was a self-guided tour, we went at our own pace, stopping to take pictures and look at formations.\u00a0 On a Wednesday in October it wasn’t that crowded and several times we couldn’t hear any sound other than water dripping and our own footsteps.\u00a0 WOW!<\/p>\n

Below are pictures we took in “The Big Room”.\u00a0 Things to note about the pictures are:<\/p>\n