Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico - 4/19/2021

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 It is time to restart the blog especially because I have a ton on pictures to add. Facebook isn't being nice so blog it is.

Today, we went to Carlsbad Caverns, all I can say is WOW. The pictures I took (over 200) don't do it justice. I highly recommend if you are ever in the area, GO! It is AMAZING!

On our drive to the cavern, we were fortunate to see Barbary big horn sheep on the side of the road. They were busy munching on the brush and didn't care that we were there.





We didn't know what to expect when we got to the park. We wore hiking boots and brought a sweatshirt because the website showed temps in the 50's in the cavern. Unfortunately, face masks were required throughout the caves. We stopped in the visitor center and picked up our tickets. We knew we wanted to walk down into the cavern so they gave us directions to the Natural Entrance. The Natural Entrance Route descends over 750 feet into the earth. Here are some pictures of what we saw as we walked up to the entrance.





It felt like we went down forever, a map for perspective, we walked the whole thing. 


As I mentioned, the pictures don't do this place justice.



























There was a spot light shining down on the trail, so I made Ernie stand under the spot light for a picture. 



This is called Mirror Lake, so cool!














The big room was so cool. The brochure says it spans 8.2 acres. I can't imagine the discoverers maneuvering through this huge cavern in the dark!

Because we had the pup in his kennel, we decided to take the elevator up from the bottom. I believe it was 800 feet. I timed how long it took from the closing of the door to when the door started to open, it was just over a minute.

We are so glad we decided to do this. I am still in awe of how big and just how cool it was being down in the cavern. 

As we were leaving the Park area we were so glad to see more big horn sheep, we even go to see a baby one standing on a rock.





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