A Long Walk In The Caves

Here is Sophie, watching Sweetie and our son get the car ready and packed, as I explain to her that I am going on a long walk...........

without her. ............... It's been years since we have "gone away" on a trip.......the main reason of many......we enjoy staying home after years of traveling when our children were small and I have animals that have to be put safely up for the night away from predators. We live so far away from everyone, it's impossible to get someone to come out every morning and night to take care of them all. So it's almost imposssibe to be gone overnight and no way that we can be gone for days........ However, we live close enough to the New Mexico state line, that we decided to take a trip to Carlsbad Caverns. It is close enough that we can go there for a fun time and be back in the late night hours . We have been there on many occasions,......... when we were newly married, and when our children were little.
We took the route closer for us, through Seminole TX, then Hobbs NM, and then Carlsbad NM. The view of the flat dry country was not much to take photos of, however, the peach orchards in Seminole stole my heart away. As you can see, no one else was interested, I had to take the photo through the window of the car. I had dreams and plans going on in my head all the way to Carlsbad about the apple orchard I would one day want to start.

I love old towns with their old buildings. On the corner I spotted this old clock.......which was still telling the right time! You can click on the photo for a better look.

Soon the flat ground start turning into the Guadalupe Mountains.

Here is a view from the top of the cave in Carlsbad.

We arrive! I can't wait to start walking....wishing Sophie could have come........but, NO DOGS ALLOWED.....
The last time we visited Carlsbad Caverns, I had to carry our youngest son, still a small toddler all the way down.....750 feet.....in my arms, because baby strollers are not allowed. I was in my early 30's at that time, and it was nothing to carry him and enjoy the walk.

This is the beginning path that winds it's way down, down. The gravity of the downhill walk started to make my feet and legs to complain.....and I wasn't even holding a toddler this time! It is a 2 1/2 hour walk to get to the bottom.

This is the roof of the top entrance. The smell of damp cave and bats fill the air and my heart beats in anticipation. My camera did not want to cooperate in the darkness so the photos did not come out good enough. You can visit the cavern's website and look at some beautiful photos of the amazing structures by clicking on to this link http://www.nps.gov/cave here you can read about the cavern's history as well.

We were a couple hundred feet down and I snapped the last picture of the opening entrance before we wound on down to where it can no longer be seen. There were so many visitors from so many places! The license plates were from Delaware, Washington, Montana, California, New Jersey, Florida, California, Michigan and on and on. As I walked the path, I noticed I was using the hand rail......something I had never done in the earlier years, and by this time, I had parts of my body that I didn't even know I had, screaming for me to sit down somewhere. Instead, I just kept moving along, in awe of the beautiful cave and formations in front of me. Finally, we made it down to the bottom floor.....and took the elevator back up to the top entrance. A fun time we all had. We roamed around Carlsbad, not too much going on in the town itself...and then decided to journey home. We got home just before sundown and just in time to tuck all of the animals into bed. Sophie and all the cats were so happy to see us! I went to sleep knowing I had much weeding to do out in the garden the next morning...........




however.........

6:30 A.M comes and I roll out of bed, and quickly realize I have even more body parts I did not know I have!!! How sore I am! I still made myself go out and weed....and now...I am even more sore than when I started out. Now my question to you.......have you heard of Carlsbad Caverns?......Do you have any type of Caverns around your area? Have you been there? I would love to hear!