We then headed to the No Whiner Diner for lunch. Their menu declares – they are not responsible for your bad decisions in your life. We then did our usual walkabout of downtown Carlsbad, and discovered they have a very scenic river drive along the Pecos River with many fine homes & a beautiful riverwalk park.
The first thing next morning, Wednesday, we headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Turns out we were the first ones there at 0800. Since you can not enter the Caverns until 0830, we viewed the Park Service film about various Caverns in the USA before heading to the Natural Entrance.
There are elevators that will take you down to the Caverns, but we opted for the Natural Entrance discovered by cowboy Jim White. This is the entrance where White commenced his explorations of the Caverns as he tried to convince everyone that this was something special, & from which the bat guano was extracted before the federal government obtained the land. In fact the first tourists were lowered & raised out of the Caverns in the guano bucket! Starting in bright sunshine & descending to complete darkness, while trying not to step in bat guano, it was a fantastic descent of over 750 feet (ie 75 stories)! One of the most impressive sights was Iceberg Rock, a 200,000 pound rock (that’s right 100 tons) that fell from the ceiling! Corrie was somewhat worried about a reoccurrence because this area of New Mexico had experienced a 4.5 earthquake last week. Our recommendation is skip the elevator if you are in good shape (if you are in really good shape, you can hike out this way).
The hike down from Natural Entrance brings you to the rest area & lunch room where Dan was eagerly anticipating a world famous Cavern Burger prepared in the deepest cafeteria in the world. Sadly, it was not to be, because all food is now cooked above ground & all you can get is cold sandwiches & drinks in this one area of the Caverns. This is an environmentally correct change, but still Dan was disappointed.At 1000 hours we caught the Kings Palace tour, for which we had made reservations a week ago & cost us $16. Turns out there are almost no freebies in this National Park. The Natural Entrance route & the Big Room route are “free” after you pay your entrance fee, but there are very few information placards describing what you are seeing on these routes. There are lettered sign posts tied into an audio device you can rent, & numbered sign posts tied into a pamphlet you can buy. And the info on the numbered posts is different then on the lettered posts; so if you want the complete story, you need to pay twice!
The Ranger guided tours are the best bet, but are only available via reservations & at an additional cost. In addition, you need to make reservations weeks or months (especially during the summer) in advance. To complicate things further, some tours are only available on weekends. We were interested in two tours that went to portions of the Caverns not available to the general public, but they were sold out. There are even tours where you get on your bellies and try to wiggle thru openings less than 18 inches high!!! We were fortunate to get reservations for the Kings Palace tour that started at 1000. This portion of the Caverns was open to the public until the 1980s, but was closed due to environmental damage (ie weddings, dances, etc). It was a fantastic one & 1/2 hours because of the Ranger’s continual description of the geology, history, environment, etc, etc, of the Caverns. Did you know they have discovered over 100 microbes in this cavern complex alone? And one appears to eat breast cancer cells, & another appears to eat plastic!After the tour we could have toured the Big Room for free, but frankly we were bushed! So we rode the elevator topsides & had lunch on the terrace. We could have had a Cavern Burger, but we felt it wasn’t the same as when you could get one 750 feet below. Also, in the welcome center is a display of Ansel Adams photos of the Caverns. Turns out Adams was “hired” by the WPA in 1936 under the Roosevelt Administration to photograph many of the National Parks/Monuments for a mural/montage in DC; a project that was never completed because of WWII. Adams was so used to working with natural light, that he was not satisfied with his Caverns photos & destroyed many of the prints! In fact Ansel stated – “...something that should not exist in relation to human beings. Something that is as remote as the galaxy, incomprehensible as a nightmare, and beautiful in spite of everything.” In the late 1978 someone discovered the few remaining negatives/prints, in a file drawer at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park (and you thought Indiana Jones & the Lost Ark was fiction). These negatives were eventually restored & have been on rotating display since 2008.
The last thing we did in the park was to drive the dirt road through Walnut Canyon. The first half of the drive was nothing special considering that we have been thru numerous desert parks like Joshua Tree, Big Bend, Petroglyphs, White Sands, Saguaro (east & west), Death Valley, etc, etc. But the last half when you drop down into the canyon was worth it!
After all this it was back to RV to rest & recuperate, before hitting the road tomorrow! But we definitely want to return for one of the other tours we couldn’t get reservations for, & to tour the Big Room. This was Corrie’s first cavern tour & only Dan’s second, but we want more. See below BLOG link for Dan’s thought on Luray Caverns. Although Luray had more “colors”, Carlsbad was in better “environmental” shape, & definitely more awesome!!!http://www.nps.gov/CAVE/index.htm
http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2009/10/16-19oct09-front-royal-va-skyline-drive.html
Trivia – What is the difference between a basin and a valley?
2 comments:
You did not say if you made a good or bad decision at the diner?? Shall I guess:))
definitely good decision. good diner food with reasonable prices. - corrie & dan
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