April 29, 2024 – Trip Day 29
Catching up on the back log here…
Garrett poses on the overlook from the Carlsbad Visitor Center with the valley behind him.
A cut away view of the Carlsbad Caverns, showing the natural entrance. The image below is the lower portion of the cave.
We got the Junior Ranger books and the kids worked on them for a bit in the visitor center. We decided to hike in the natural entrance down to the lower cave.
Family shot, by Evan, at the top.
A view of the walkway to the natural entrance. The tour of the cave is self guided, unlike some of the other caves we toured.
As we went down, we did meet a guy coming out going up. That’s one way to get your steps in!
As we worked our way down, we saw some neat formations. When we were working our way down, Jarek encountered a Ranger on the way up and they had a chat for a bit, which was also part of their Junior Ranger program.
Stopping before this passage for a family shot. I (Alan) would have to crawl on hands and knees to get through this with Garrett on my back.
Out on the other side, we continued on our way.
We saw some more neat formations on the way down. I’ve selected a couple of them for this post. Perhaps I’ll put the rest in an album somewhere.
One of the pools of water in the big room at the bottom of the cavern.
Garrett was passed out when we got to the bottom of the cave. We stopped where the elevators came in for a bathroom break.
Touring the big room at the bottom, we saw wonderful formations, like this one above, fairy land.
There were numerous other formations that were lit up as well.
At the completion of our loop, we were glad to have the elevators available to ride back up the 700+ feet, rather than walk back out!
Jarek turned in his badge at the completion of our walk in the cave. Arya and Evan did not have their books finished until a couple days later, when we stopped by on our way to Guadalupe Mountains National park and they turned in their books and got their badges.