May 3 - Carlsbad Caverns National Park

All our national parks are unique and special.  (I'm sure that's redundant in some way, but after working in Yellowstone last summer and looking forward to Grand Canyon this summer, I feel qualified to make a comment like that.)  Carlsbad Caverns fits in this same "unique and special" category.  NPS has done a great job preserving and presenting this place.  There are ranger-led tours, which I would HIGHLY recommend making an advanced reservation for.  But if you just show up, there is an amazing self guided tour that takes you over 750 feet underground into the Big Room. The US Capitol dome could fit inside this space...twice!

 It's hard to get perspective when you're underground.

This is the underground cafeteria.  The tables have lanterns with LED lights.  Pretty cool to ride the elevator 750 down and then grab lunch between tours.  Convenient restrooms too.  Constant 56 degrees, so we had lightweight jackets.  Interestingly, very high humidity - ~96%!  

We left Odessa, TX (in the Central Time Zone) and rushed to make our 10 am tour in the Mountain Time Zone.  Fortunately, everything went like clockwork.  Called the King's Palace Tour, it was spectacular.  You can see the ramp with the railing, winding it's way down past these massive features.  

Susan helps give some perspective as to the size of these features.  

 NPS has done a great job lighting these caverns.  

Very few of the features actually had a "wet" look to them.  Because the area above is very desert-like, it's very dry.  When water does make it through, it's about an 3 year process.  I.e., the rain that fell above 3 years ago is just now making it to the features in Carlsbad Caverns.  

There were about 40 folks on our ranger-led tour.  Plenty of room for everyone! 

Reflecting pool.

This is called Veiled Statue. 

After lunch, our next tour was called the Left Hand Tunnel because...well, it takes the left hand tunnel out of the main room, of course!  What was really cool about this tour is that it's by candle lit lantern.  

Only 15 folks on this more intimate tour.

This feature hangs down from the ceiling and is called Lion's Tail.  

Highly recommend putting Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico on your list of places to see.