Middle Earth

  Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States
Friday, August 8, 2008

Mexican Canyon Railway trestle?

When I was planning my "business" trip to New Mexico, I got the okay from my manager to spend an extra day in New Mexico since it did not increase the airfare.  Of course lodging and other expenses for the extra day are paid by me.  I definitely wanted to spend my free day going to Carlsbad Cavern to explore the cave systems.  After spending the morning looking up to the heavens, I am in route to Middle Earth.  Along the way, I stopped to enjoy the views of Lincoln National Forest.  In the middle of the forest was a ski resort Cloudcroft.  Also while driving east on US 82, I spotted a wooden trestle.  I do not know if it was the Mexican Canyon Railroad trestle that I read about in the literature of Lincoln National Forest.  But if you have some time, which I did not, there are some good hiking trails including one with signs in Braille inviting hikers to touch...or so I read.

I underestimated the drive time from Alamogordo to Carlsbad...it did not help that I made the stops mentioned above.  I did not arrive into Carlsbad National Park until 4 pm.  Unfortunately the last walk-in time to the main cave was 3:30.  You have the option of riding the elevator down 700+ feet to the main chamber called the "Big Room" or hiking (spelunking?) 1 hour/mile down from the cave entrance to the "Big Room".  Although it is still $6 for either option, I always do things the hard way, but in this case I did not have that option...dammit.  The park services did a good job making this spectacular wonder accessible to all while preserving the natural formations.  Prior to riding the elevator, a park ranger briefed the rules; do not touch the formations (to stay people's curiosity a specimen was available to touch at the doors), stay on the paths, no tossing coins/garbage into the pools and keep conversations to a whisper.  Also, they did a good job in providing enough illumination to highlight the main formations but still maintaining the cave exploration "feel".

Lion's tail

:-)

The "Big Room" is a 8.2 acre (about 6 football fields) cavern with 225 foot ceilings.  Amazingly at two sections Lower Cave and the Bottomless Pit, the cavern actually extend further down into the earth!  Because of the limited lighting and the fact that the flash just gets absorb by the immense space, it was difficult to take any decent pictures.  I did get one good one of this stalactite which looked like a lion's tail and a stalagmite shaped like...do I need to say it.  The pools of water are so clear that it would have made some great pictures showing the reflection of the formations in the water.  The "Big Room" is shaped like a cross and the paths make a figure 8.  It took me a total of 2 hours to explore the cavern but people short on time could do one loop instead of the figure 8.  One warning...as you stare open jawed at the formations on the ceiling, do not gawk in areas with puddles on the floor because those stalactite are still dripping.

I finished in time to enjoy the other attraction of the park, the nightly bat flight.  During the summer, Carlsbad Cavern is the hotel to several hundred thousand Mexican free-tailed bats and other bat species.  At sunset, the bats get hungry and all leave the cave at the same time.  The park has built a little amphitheater around the cave entrance for people to observe this awesome phenomenon.  The show starts at 7 when a park ranger holds a question and answer session, which was quite entertaining.  Once the detectors indicate the bats are up, the ranger ask everyone to be quiet and enjoy the real show.  I do not know why, but the bats fly in a counter clockwise spiral coming out of the cave and most proceed to some area away from the cave.  In the waining light, you can see the trail of bats heading out of sight.  I sat there for 1/2 hour watching this flow of bats go un-interrupted.  Finally, I asked the ranger how long does this go on.  He has seen this procession go for 3 hours but since the park is closing at 9 he highly encourage that I start on the road.  Although not as thick, the human visitors also formed a little procession out of the park.

If I am ever back in the area, I would definitely like to spend more time at Carlsbad.  It would have been cool to see a predator bird swooping into the bat-line.  Also I would like to make the hike down to the Big Room and other ranger guided hikes to other caves in the area.