July 2, Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, to Dallas TX

Waking up on a cool, clear Texas morning in the mountains is quite a treat. (And did you know that there are mountains in Texas?  There are, the Guadalupe Mountains in Western Texas, not too far from El Paso.)  It was hard to get out of bed in our cool mini-van, but we did, sleeping in until the late hour of 6:30.

We reorganized the car, repacked and then head up the path for a morning hike.  The trail was rocky, with desert plants and some Manzanita trees.  We ran across several mule deer and assorted interesting lizards and even something we found out was called a toad grasshopper—a great name that is a good description.  Patti had guessed that she would call it a toadhopper.  We walked about at least two miles up the mountainside, and finally had to give in to the growing heat and head back down.  None-the-less, it was a gorgeous hike and gave us a nice taste for this area.  We need to come back, but at a cooler time of year.

We also had a visit at The Frijole Ranch, a part of the national park, which had been built by settlers over a hundred years ago.  It included 50 feet-tall pecan trees, a lovely spring which they had channeled in order to be able to use the water for irrigation and some pack mules.  Around that ranch house, it was really a comfortable temperature.  We are coming to have a lot of admiration for how people were able to live in these parts without air-conditioning.

We took a last look at the mountains, including Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.  Then it was time to drive 40 miles up the highway to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in southern New Mexico.

Carlsbad Caverns is a very popular national park and one that is really fascinating to visit.  You have a choice between taking the elevator down into the caves, a drop of over 760 feet, or you can hike down through the natural entrance, a walk of about an hour.  We chose to do the later.  It was so amazing to both see everything so well maintained, and yet still a little scary at places, and then think about how it was when it was first discovered in the 1800’s.  THEN the trip into this mammoth structure had to be terrifying and exhilarating. 

Patti listened to the guided tour on tape, while Dick was the photographer.  We both so enjoyed seeing the splendor of this cave that goes on and on and on.   It was so well presented, with the lighting designed by a Hollywood movie light designer.  It strikes you as so astounding that all of this that we see has its roots millions of years ago.  The stalagmites (hanging on to the ceiling so tightly) and stalagmites (standing on the ground tough and mightily) all were so terrific.

The descent from the natural entrance was made in a series of steep switchbacks. 200 feet below the surface we passed the entrance to the Bat Cave, where we knew that over 100,000 bats were sleeping during the day and would spiral out of the entrance in the evening like a column of smoke. As we continued to descend more and more of the rooms that we passed through had increasingly decorative formations created out of gypsum by dripping water over thousands of years. 

The highlight of our visit was the hour and a half we spent in “The Big Room” which has not only an extensive variety of formations but some were really immense.     One of the things that they used to do in earlier ages is gather tours together in front of a huge rock, called The Rock of Ages, turn out all of the lights and have the audience all sing the old hymn Rock of Ages Cleft For Me.  It was a very different era. They no longer do this, but that must have been an amazing experience. 

We also enjoyed a chat with one of the rangers about his experiences being a “caver” and what he had learned through that. Park rangers are a very delightful crew and we enjoy taking the time to speak with them whenever we get the opportunity.  They also seem to enjoy talking with people who have additional questions than, “Where is the bathroom?”

It is also possible to walk back out of the caverns, but we chose to take the elevator up.  A wise choice, because by now, our pedometer showed that we had walked over 20,000 steps and 8 miles today.  No wonder we were feeling a little bit tired. We were sorry to not be able to stick around for an additional five hours to watch the bats rising for their evening foraging.  Perhaps next time.

Our original plan had called for us to camp for the night tonight somewhere in Eastern Texas, but a call to Patti’s sister confirmed that we should just keep on driving to arrive in their family’s home in a suburb of Dallas a day early.  We drove until nearly midnight, and then were glad to be arriving knowing there was air-conditioning, a comfortable bed and nowhere to drive for the next couple of days.  Yah!