Caves and Mountains - Day 4

Is it only Day 4? I feel like I’ve been doing this for 2 weeks already.

Wow, was I tired. I think I got 10 hours of quality sleep. The air mattress was superior to the cheap motel beds I had been in the previous two nights. And the rest was important because of all that I did today including nearly a third of a marathon of hiking.

I woke to an overcast dreary day, and was not at all disappointed because I was going underground for the day. Brantley Lake left me just 40 minutes from Carlsbad Caverns National Park and I was in the Visitor’s Center by 9:30 AM. The Visitors Center sits on top of a small mountain and overlooks an enormous expanse of lowlands. Millennia ago this expanse had been an ocean, and the Visitors Center sits on what was once the landfall of the ocean, the beachs. And below the Visitor Center, the Caverns, were once the coral reef on the oceans edge. When the ocean receded into the desert, the reef slowly became the amazing caverns.
I chose to do the two hikes that came free with the National Parks Pass I had bought for $80 at Saguaro NP.

The first hike was called the Natural Entrance hike, because we were entering through the same entrance that was first discovered in 1903. The 1.2 mile long hike would take my down 750 feet (75 stories) into the caves.

Very shortly after the entrance, I crossed what they call the “twilight zone” and I would last see natural light again for 3 hours. I was spelunking in what is considered by most to be the most beautiful caves in the world. I was immediately immersed in stalactites, stalagmites, columns, popcorn, water pools, draperies and a bunch of other cave features I can’t remember. It was jaw dropping.

The audio tour that I purchased talked of how most visitors walk around with a dumb-struck look on their face, and it was certainly true for me. Going down into the caves, every other step brought about something new and spectacular. And each new cave I entered seemed more unbelievably spectacular than the previous. Not cool or beautiful or even amazing, but none were less than spectacular.

I took a ton of pictures, but half the pictures didn’t come out because the caves were so big and dark that the flash was ineffective. Only some of the close-ups came out ok, but not nearly as good as they might have. This is a place that must be visited in person, and any description I could give won’t compare to the experience.

After the 75 story hike down, I was at the entrance to the Big Room, the second hike on my tour. This Big Room isn’t the biggest cave room in the world, it’s in Borneo, but this may be 3rd. I did another mile+ hike around just a portion of the Big Room. Unless I heard or remember wrong, the size of just this one cave was like 700 football fields. Not a single second in this “room” was anything but awesome. I spoke in hushed whispers with my fellow spelunkers in terms of stunned reverence, and even though I am an atheist, I was quite often using the word God.

The hike ended at the elevators, and I was whisked up the 750 feet to the surface. Nearly 3 miles of hiking and with every turn of the head I was seeing something different. In my ranking of best National Parks, this definitely makes the top 5. It’s not better than Yellowstone or Bryce, but it is certainly in the top 5.

I thought of hanging around til 6PM to see the exodous of more than 100,000 bats through the Natural Entrance as they set out for their nightly insect slaughter. But with the early start, I figured I could get on my way and perhaps have another scenic drive on my way to Big Bend Texas.

Here’s something I didn’t know before yesterday. Just 30 miles south of Carlsbad Caverns NP, and just over the Texas border, there is another National Park. Has anyone heard of Guadalupe Mountains NP? Neither had I.

I was told of it by the Ranger at Brantley Lake, and only briefly read up on it before nightfall. I saw there was an hour long scenic drive, and that was the plan that the Ranger and Guadalupe Mtns NP talked me out of. Cute as a button she was, when she told me, “The only real way to see the Park is to get out of your car and hike. And the best hike you can do in a half day is the McKittrick Canyon hike.” So under an overcast sky, I found myself at the start of a 5 mile (2.5 out, 2.5 back) hike to Pratt’s Lodge.

I might have been jaded by the spectacle of Carlsbad Caverns, or perhaps it was the lack of sunshine, it may have been the rain that started falling during the return trip, but this hike just didn’t do it for me. Sure it was beautiful, and had all the scenery, flora and fauna (see the deer photo) that I could hope for, but it wasn’t up to par with other hikes of this length I’ve done at National Parks. I think part of the problem was that it was a somewhat strenuous hike done over mostly rocky terrain that had me staring at my footing instead of taking in the scenery. I should have done the shorter scenic drive. My body would ache less right now.

I’m holed up in Van Horn, TX in another cheap hotel, and I expect to get another 10 hours of sleep tonight. I plan just a leisurely drive to Big Bend tomorrow. I will probably be driving a scenic route that I blogged about on the first Road Trip, so no need to discuss it again. It’ll be a day off, but hopefully not a rain out. Depending on the weather I may be camping out before exploring the park on Monday.