Batastic

As I write, we’re driving across the plains of Texas and we are on the last leg of this journey traveling northward for the last time after leaving Big Bend. We just stopped at border patrol and my husband had a hard time telling the agent where we were going as he forgot the name of the Harvest Host brewery that we’re staying at tonight near Abilene. They still let us pass, thankfully. Our door to the RV broke yesterday and I think Harvey (the RV) is even telling us it’s high time we quit. 1 week left. Harvey, you can do it!

We spent 3 nights in White’s City near the entrance of Carlsbad Caverns and 30-40 miles from key sites at Guadeloupe Mountains NP (the mountains actually go over the top of some of the caves.) It’s a pretty podunk town with dilapidated buildings and businesses that couldn’t quite keep up to date. Even the gift shop at the RV park was still trying to sell VHS tapes. It humored us with some good photo ops however.

We found a great Mexican restaurant to stop at for lunch in New Mexico on the way to White’s City and found Rocky a little sombrero.

We also stopped at the Pine Springs Visitor Center at Guadeloupe Mountains to get a lay of the land and see where we’d like to hike in a couple days since we planned on spending the next day at the caverns. It gave as a nice view of the tallest peaks in Texas.

The following hot day was spent in the cool Carlsbad Caverns. After an interesting short scooter ride through the Chihuahuan Desert, we reached the entrance.

We signed up for the 1:30 pm tour of the King’s Palace and then decided to spend the morning descending down into the Natural Entrance through the Main Corridor and then mill around the Big Room using the audio program on a self-guided tour which we purchased for $5 in the gift shop. It was very informative and better than reading all the placards. It was awesome to go at our own pace and since it was in the morning we were the only ones descending down into the cave. It was a little eerie to go into a big black deep hole in the ground by ourselves.

A little unnerving too to see the Radon warning sign before entering the mouth of the cave. At least we’re not the ones giving tours all day long there….

There were quite the number of switchbacks as we descended over 750 feet. We passed the bat cave where thousands of Brazilian Free-Tail bats sleep during the day before exciting the cave at night. The smell of swallow poop was overwhelming until we passed into the area where there was no natural light.

We passed the tip of Iceberg Rock (huge rock that fell from the cave ceiling awhile ago) at the base of the Main Corridor but didn’t realize how big it was until we left later in the day when we were at the base of it. We eventually made it to the main trail at the base of the elevators and took it past the “Boneyard,” “Hall of Giants,” and the “Crystal Spring Dome,” which is the largest actively growing speleothem in the cave.

Most of the trail winds around The Big Room which is the largest natural limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere (8.2 acres). We learned that the lighting was designed by a technician who worked on Broadway to give it a theatrical flavor to highlight the important structures yet still make it feel like you’re in a cave. They did a pretty good job.

Mirror Lake and Bottomless Pit were cool to see. The pit is 140-feet deep but early explorers would throw rocks in and didn’t hear any sound because the floor was sandy.

We found our way back to the elevators that take you up to the visitor center. We had a good lunch there (yummy burritos) and finished in time for our ranger-led tour. We took the elevators back down and had a fantastic 1.5-hour tour that led us through the King’s Palace, Papoose Room, Queens Chamber, and the Green Lake Room. They used to be open for independent wandering but were closed down and now are only ranger-led after all the breakages that were happening (2,000 per year). The numerous stalactites on the ceilings were more concentrated than in any other cave I’ve been in.

Creeptastic husband:

After the tour, which ended at Iceberg Rock, we decided to hoof it uphill and ascend the steep switchbacks out of the cave where we entered earlier that day. We passed several people who were huffing and we were pretty proud of ourselves for not having to take very many breaks. We would not have been able to do that so easily had this been the first park on our trip. A passerby going down the trail even commented, “I hope your heart is healthy.”

It was late afternoon by the time we saw sunlight again and we had enough time to go back to the RV park and relieve Rocky and take a little nap before the nightly bat flight that could be watched from the amphitheater. When we returned there already was a good crowd forming but we got some good seats at the top and listened to a very interesting ranger present some bat facts. More than 300 bats can roost together in a square foot of the ceiling!

No pictures were allowed to be taken when the hundreds of thousands of bats started to take flight so you’ll have to use your imagination or google some pics (you need a special permit) to see what it was like. We watched for about 45 minutes before it got too dark to see anything but the bats were still exiting when we left.

It was cool that everyone watching was respectful and silent and in awe of these tiny ambitious winged creatures. They came out and swarmed in a tornado before rocketing out in groups to go find their food and drink. Very fascinating and a highlight of this trip for sure! Hard to capture here, but the moon was especially brilliant that night when we left the park.

The next day we drove the RV down to McKittrick Canyon, part of Guadeloupe Mountains NP and hiked the fairly easy 7-mile round trip trail to Pratt Cabin and The Grotto. Pratt was a geologist who built a stone cabin in the canyon and later donated it along with 5,000 acres to the government to encourage the establishment of a national park. We had to cross the stream a couple times on the way there.

The sotol yucca plants were impressively tall and we came across a really unique tree with peeling red bark called the Madrone tree. This was amidst the oak and maple and I hear the place is even more beautiful come late October or early November. It was really nice to seek shade in these trees and sit down for a light lunch near The Grotto.

Definitely a pretty little unknown park which was good for us. I do think it would be even more appealing if you are able to backpack through the high country.

Back at the RV park we were able to chill by the pool at the hotel across the way. Pools become a must in this sweltering southern heat.

All-in-all 2 little parks conveniently located next to each other with great hikes and unique experiences. Though they’re not on my top list of parks to revisit, I definitely enjoyed them and wouldn’t discourage you from checking them out. Goodbye scorpions and tarantulas (Didn’t get a pic, but Rocky tried to chase one down the size of my palm on an evening walk). Fortunately the scorpion below was dead.