Carlsbad Caverns

[Royal]

Carlsbad Caverns, NM.
Just got back from Carlsbad. We took our niece and nephew-in-law and our great nephew who is almost 7.
There are many caves at Carlsbad Caverns, Since we had a 7 year old with us, we only did the Natural Entrance and the Big room self guided tours. The rest require a guide and some climbing and crawling.

About ten minutes in to the cave, I realized I had left my e-cig in the car.
But with 4+ hours of spelunking ahead of us, I didn't miss it.

It was raining when we got there, and at first they had the natural entrance closed due to lightning. The lightning subsided long enough for us to make it in. We had to do the 5 minute hike to the entrance in the rain and got soaked. The temperature in the cave and at 750 feet under ground, is a constant 56 degrees Fahrenheit year around, so at first we were all a bit chilled from being wet, until we got warmed up from hiking and eventually dried out.




This is the Natural entrance.




The Towers



This is the Famous Rock of ages.




Sharks mouth





Just a typical view from within the Big room. The Big room is over 14 football fields in size.




There are some more pictures of the cave here.
http://www.e-smokers-forum.com/membe...-carlsbad.html

[Jim Davis]

Welcome back Buddy;

The pic's are magnificent. It must have been something extrordinary to go 4+ hours without a vape.

[Royal]

Never missed it. The only time I felt I needed a vape was when everyone was congregating in our suite. I got us a suite and the others just a standard room. This way we could have some quiet alone time right?... Wrong!.

The great nephew, at 7 will drive you nuts, only way to get him to settle down was to let him play the games here in the ESF arcade. I had to watch him closely as he was playing under my log in.
Actually, I was hoping that he would boost my overall score, which I think he did.

[PTJD]

Nice pictures, wondered where you were.
I could not do 4 hours without!

[lordmage]

hey that's cheating nice pics glad you enjoyed yourself... hey account sharing bad boy

[Royal]

Pictures do these caves no justice. If you have never been to Carlsbad Caverns, you need to put this on your list of things to do. It is not the deepest or the biggest cave in the world, but it is the most beautiful. The Natural Entrance and the Big room are both self guided tours, in other words you are on your own. If you go during the off season in the winter and on a week day, you may find you have the cave(s) pretty much all to yourself. There is always a park ranger or two in the caves for your safety, and there are emergency phones should anyone need to call for help. Carlsbad National Park is open year round and is only closed on Christmas day.
If you have the time, stay until dusk so that you can witness the flight of the bats. At sunset about a 1/2 million Mexican freetail bats exit the cave for their nightly feeding.

During your descent in to the Natural Entrance, you will see bat cave, this is an area of the cave that the bats live. But you will not see a single one while you are in the cave, and the caves close before they exit.
No they will not bite, but it might not be a bad idea to wear a cap, with that many bats flying directly over your head, there is bound to be an accident or two.

[mcquinn]

The bats are the only thing I remember as I was a small child when I went.Pretty scary watching all those bats come out of where you were a while ago.

[Royal]

Originally Posted by mcquinn

The bats are the only thing I remember as I was a small child when I went.Pretty scary watching all those bats come out of where you were a while ago.

YouTube - Carlsbad Caverns National Park DVD

YouTube - Carlsbad Caverns National Park DVD

[mcquinn]

And I remember they turned out the lights and was way dark.

[Royal]

Yea, they used to turn out the lights at the Rock of Ages, but they don't do that anymore.