Days 5-6 Descending Carlsbad Caverns

1. Austin, Texas

2. Carlsbad, New Mexico

We left Austin, Texas to start our 7.5 hour drive to Carlsbad, New Mexico - the town adjacent to the Carlsbad Caverns. The drive was easy and the weather continued to be gracious to us with no sign of rain on our trip yet! We spotted our first tumbleweed rolling across the freeway en route and as we neared the extraterrestrial charged area of Roswell after deciding to pass through to say hi to the aliens. 

For this post, I’ve created a vlog post to capture our experience exploring the Carlsbad Caverns because even our pictures and videos don’t do this natural treasure justice. I’ll let the images speak for themselves but first, a little history lesson on the caverns and the stalactites and stalagmites that take your breath away throughout the magnificent cave. 

• These caverns are the caves of the Guadalupe Mountains in Carlsbad, New Mexico

• The caves take form as limestone and other rock is dissolved by acidic water - in this case, carbonic acid - that create the massive gypsum deposits, stalactites and stalagmites and other features in the cavern

• The highest elevations in this cavern formed first about 12 million years ago while the lowest elevations of the caves formed about 2 million years ago

• The average temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit with 90 percent humidity

• The humid, warm areas of the caverns in the entryway are home to hundreds of thousands of bats and their hatchlings

• Cave swallows, ringtail cats, moths, millipedes, cave crickets, spiders and beetles can be found in the cave
  

Now, click the video below to enjoy the elegance of the Carlsbad Caverns for yourselves! Our next stop is Albuquerque, New Mexico as we make our way to the next National Park - Mesa Verde in Cortez, Colorado. Stay tuned and keep wandering with us!