After leaving Albuquerque, Art and I continued on to Roswell and Carlsbad, NM. We stopped briefly in Roswell to see if we could find any "Aliens" who supposedly landed in that area in 1947. The government was said to have covered up the incident, so it has remained a mystery to this day. The UFO museum is in downtown Roswell. We did tour it, but remain unconvinced either way of the possibility of an alien landing! The museum itself needs some updating, which they are currently working on with plans for a new facility!
Carlsbad Caverns National Park was truly worth visiting. The park itself is at the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains in the Chihuahuan Desert. The ride there was beautiful going 7 miles up winding, hilly roads. Carlsbad Cavern, itself, is a series of enormous rooms formed from a chemical reaction of sulfuric acid which hollowed out the limestone. The Cavern is said to be one of the world's largest caves.
We started out at the cave's natural entrance which is 90 ft wide and 40 ft high! It is a steep descent into the cave with a switchback trail. It took us a about 1 1/2 hrs to complete. There were huge formations of columns, stalactites and stalagmites. Remember, stalactites hold "tight" to the ceiling and you "might" trip on the stalagmites on the ground. We ended up in the underground rest area, 750 ft beneath the surface that even sells food and souvenirs. Luckily, there is an elevator to get back up. From there we took a guided tour of the King's Palace, which includes smaller ornate rooms of formations, containing "draperies" and "soda straws". This was in the deepest part of the cave, about 830 ft below the surface. The Big Room was our last tour and was truly awe-inspiring. It is 8 acres and 225 ft tall and has massive formations everywhere!
The day ended with us being able to see hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tail bats emerge from the natural entrance of the cave. This occurs nightly from May through October until the bats migrate for the winter. Originally, this is how the cave was discovered, when a cowboy noticed huge black "clouds" in the distance and didn't know what was happening. We sat there for 40 minutes and there was no end to the bats. What a sight!!!!!!
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