Carlsbad Caverns Round Two

After an amazing day adventuring through White Sands we took off for Carlsbad, NM. We took the north route to avoid the Guadalupe Mountain pass but after we passed through Alamogordo we hit an unexpected mountain! Destiny handled it like a champ. Her four cylinders were working away as we climbed up a two lane road to 8600ft! In one little town up there we found snow on the ground. It made us a little uneasy, unsure of what we had just gotten ourselves into! It was about this point in the drive that we really wished we would have bought the 'Mountain Directory' that our RV friends told us about this past summer. It gives you the slope grades of just about every highway in the U.S. In an RV, I have to come to learn that it is always better to be prepared- especially when it comes to roads! Driving through unknown roads in the dark can be a little tiring as we stay extremely focused, we even add the co-pilot position! We need all the eyes that we can get on those mountain roads to watch for ice, animals, and other crazy drivers. It wouldn't just be a car accident for us (not to minimize car accidents) but we would loose our whole home too! So we try to do our best to stay aware.

Our girl is a beast though and handled that mountain with no issues and got us to Carlsbad safe and sound! The more we drive her, the more confident we become in her abilities. She's our little turtle shell, taking us place to place, keeping us warm and dry! We are pretty blessed. We celebrated our safe arrival with a toast and then had a really great discussion from our daily devotional book. After that we were off to get some rest before our big day at Carlsbad Caverns.

On Saturday morning we got a semi early start on our day. We had breakfast and coffee, then made our way to Carlsbad National Park. Jordan and I went last October but we were ready to go again and to show Justin this mystical world. 

Ready to go exploring

Me and Donnie, Justin's traveling buddy

The sun was super bright, hence my closed eyes

best buds

About to enter the cave

I assure you, they LOVE my constant group shots

Ranger Justin is ready to give us the tour

Goodbye sunlight, see you in a few hours.

14 Football fields?! This place is seriously that big...

Gumby wanted to come play too

Kind of dark but it was so awesome down there

Crazy ceiling

pretty unreal

Look at this stallion!

Love this shot

this one is pretty awesome too!

it looks like a crazy monster or something

Love the lighting in this one

I am not sure how I can describe this place any different than Jordan did last time we came (See Here). I mean the place is crazy, kind of creepy, cool, unworldly and mind blowing all at the same time. We had a lot of other visitors in the cave with us this time and I think that it kind of took the mystique away. Last time we rarely saw another human being, but besides that it was completely amazing! 

This time it took us about three hours to get through. We met up with a Ranger at some point in the Big Room and she told us about a guided tour of the lower caves. You can only go in the upper cave with general admission, the guided tour in the lower cave is $20.00 but she said it was completely worth it and there are things you will never see anywhere else. It sounds awesome and we are definitely looking forward to that next time we come through. 

After we finished admiring this crazy creation we wondered through the gift shop and then headed out to a plateau on the edge of the park and had a picnic lunch. The view is insane and we enjoyed sitting down after the three mile walk! 

Justin had to be in Dallas in two days so we have to book it out to Abilene, TX tonight. We have been using AllStays.com to get reviews on Walmart parking lots (and other camping areas) because we are realizing that although Walmart allows overnight visitors, certain cities have set ordinances to void Walmart's policy. So we have to be much more aware these days if we need a quick overnight stay! So we are off to hit the open road!

~Happy Trails~