Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico
El Paso only a few hours away...
Carlsbad Cavern
Carlsbad Cavern 
Murray in the Cavern
Yesterday we escaped the 100F (38C) above ground temperatures and went down 750' (1/4 km) underground to tour the world famous Carlsbad Caverns. The caverns are located in the Chihuahuan Desert within the Guadalupe Mountains in the SE of New Mexico. It was part of a 400 mile reef of an inland sea which has since evaporated. Over centuries the land formation altered and when the Guadalupe Mtns were pushed up, changes caused by rain seeping through the limestone and mixing with other elements etched the caverns out. You can take a 1 mile hike which takes one hour just to reach the main cavern open to tourists, or you can take an elevator down. We knew the tour of the caves took another 1.5 hrs along a path over a mile around, so we chose the elevator. It was bliss to descend from the scorching temperatures above into the cavern which remains a constant 56F (13C) all year ‘round.
We each had a hand held audio device so that when you came to a cavern ‘decoration’, it often had a number on it. You punch the number into the audio guide, hold it to your ear, and hear recorded information relating to that number. It was a fascinating way to explore the cavern. I have been in several caves over my life and admired the various stalagmites (grow up from ground) and stalactites (grow down from ceiling) but I have never seen anything to compare with this cavern. While it is not the biggest cavern in the world (I think Malaysia holds that title), visitors rate it the most beautiful cavern. It has a wide variety of cave formations and they are so very different. We thoroughly enjoyed our cavern experience. Sadly my little Samsung camera was not up to the task of capturing images in such low light without the stablising influence of a tripod.
We each had a hand held audio device so that when you came to a cavern ‘decoration’, it often had a number on it. You punch the number into the audio guide, hold it to your ear, and hear recorded information relating to that number. It was a fascinating way to explore the cavern. I have been in several caves over my life and admired the various stalagmites (grow up from ground) and stalactites (grow down from ceiling) but I have never seen anything to compare with this cavern. While it is not the biggest cavern in the world (I think Malaysia holds that title), visitors rate it the most beautiful cavern. It has a wide variety of cave formations and they are so very different. We thoroughly enjoyed our cavern experience. Sadly my little Samsung camera was not up to the task of capturing images in such low light without the stablising influence of a tripod.
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