Carlsbad Cavern, Desert Drive and BLM Gypsum Cave
April 18, 2008
Carlsbad Caverns is getting a new visitor center. Since the old one is under construction they have about eight trailers set up to house the gift shop, food service, ticket office, ranger station and restrooms. We talked with Ranger Dave Thomas about Slaughter Canyon Cave tour and signed up tomorrow. He is a friend of our friend from Big Bend NP, retired ranger Doug Thompson, so we shared a few stories about times with Doug at Castalon.
We took the Big Room Cave Tour. The elevator still brings you down over seven hundred feet. There are no restrooms or food service down there due to the construction. We spent over four hours walking on the paved trail through Carlsbad Cavern. What a grand sight seeing the formations huge and tiny. We took in everything from great columns to thin soda straws to massive draperies to gnarly popcorn and all the “tites” and “mites” in between.
The 9-mile loop auto tour through the Chihuahuan Desert called Desert Drive was a wonderful way to explore this rugged bleak, barren, yet beautiful landscape. We past the million-gallon water tank that provides water for the park. Water is pumped up to it from Rattlesnake Springs far below. We wish were geologists as we travel around the country. This is another one of those areas that is fascinating. Geologists have determined that some 250 million years ago this area was under the Permian Sea. The reef that was left was buried under thousands of feet of sediments. About 20 million years ago the land began to rise and erode and the ancient reef was exposed as mountains. We stopped at Rattlesnake Canyon and had some lunch before continuing on through Walnut Canyon. We walked a bit along the canyon wall looking for signs of water seepage and the pond mentioned in the brochure. We didn’t find the pond, but did find beautiful red blooms on the cactus nearby.
We had asked where the BLM cave is located and found our way to BLM lands by driving through a cattle pasture, followed a fence line, jigged and jogged a bit and made it to the campground and fenced in cave entrance. This is the 2nd Largest gypsum cave in the United States! We settled in and decided to go look at the entrance. We remembered the time we were here years ago and spent time exploring underground trying not to get mixed up with all the side tunnels. We had JMe then and had left her in the van. We walked down to look inside when we heard the farmiliar sound of rattles. Kathy was near the cave entrance and it sounded like a swarm of bees just inside the entrance. She was looking around when Will said he found a snake under a rock! It sure does give off a loud warning! We walked back to the Roadtrek and relaxed til the moon came up.
Carlsbad Caverns is getting a new visitor center. Since the old one is under construction they have about eight trailers set up to house the gift shop, food service, ticket office, ranger station and restrooms. We talked with Ranger Dave Thomas about Slaughter Canyon Cave tour and signed up tomorrow. He is a friend of our friend from Big Bend NP, retired ranger Doug Thompson, so we shared a few stories about times with Doug at Castalon.
We took the Big Room Cave Tour. The elevator still brings you down over seven hundred feet. There are no restrooms or food service down there due to the construction. We spent over four hours walking on the paved trail through Carlsbad Cavern. What a grand sight seeing the formations huge and tiny. We took in everything from great columns to thin soda straws to massive draperies to gnarly popcorn and all the “tites” and “mites” in between.
The 9-mile loop auto tour through the Chihuahuan Desert called Desert Drive was a wonderful way to explore this rugged bleak, barren, yet beautiful landscape. We past the million-gallon water tank that provides water for the park. Water is pumped up to it from Rattlesnake Springs far below. We wish were geologists as we travel around the country. This is another one of those areas that is fascinating. Geologists have determined that some 250 million years ago this area was under the Permian Sea. The reef that was left was buried under thousands of feet of sediments. About 20 million years ago the land began to rise and erode and the ancient reef was exposed as mountains. We stopped at Rattlesnake Canyon and had some lunch before continuing on through Walnut Canyon. We walked a bit along the canyon wall looking for signs of water seepage and the pond mentioned in the brochure. We didn’t find the pond, but did find beautiful red blooms on the cactus nearby.
We had asked where the BLM cave is located and found our way to BLM lands by driving through a cattle pasture, followed a fence line, jigged and jogged a bit and made it to the campground and fenced in cave entrance. This is the 2nd Largest gypsum cave in the United States! We settled in and decided to go look at the entrance. We remembered the time we were here years ago and spent time exploring underground trying not to get mixed up with all the side tunnels. We had JMe then and had left her in the van. We walked down to look inside when we heard the farmiliar sound of rattles. Kathy was near the cave entrance and it sounded like a swarm of bees just inside the entrance. She was looking around when Will said he found a snake under a rock! It sure does give off a loud warning! We walked back to the Roadtrek and relaxed til the moon came up.
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