After leaving San Antonio, TX on February 12^th we headed to Carlsbad, NM.  On the way we spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Carlsbad before going to the Carlsbad RV Park and Campground for 2 nights.  While in Carlsbad we visited the Carlsbad Caverns National Park to see the amazing formations.  The park contains 116 caves, formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone, creating some of the largest caves in North America.  The natural entrance trail was a twisty one mile journey into the heart of the caverns.  Once at the bottom there was another mile of paths through the “Big Room” where you could see much larger formations.  While in the caverns I was constantly thinking about the people who were brave enough to journey into these caves many, many years ago before flashlights. Luckily the journey out of the caverns as a quick elevator ride straight up.  The kids also received their Junior Ranger badges.

The caverns are also the home of thousands of bats in the summer.  These Mexican free-tailed bat’s live in Mexico in the winter then head to Carlsbad Caverns in the summer.  Every night they leave the caverns by the thousands in search for food.  These bats are very important to the area as they eat tons of bugs.  Later that night we went to Pizza Inn for a little Valentine’s day dinner with the kids.

The next day we went to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The Guadalupe Mountains are part of one of the finest examples of an ancient marine fossil reef on Earth.  The mountains formed 260-270 million years ago.  During this time a vast tropical ocean covered portions of Texas and New Mexico.  Over millions of years, calcareous sponges, algae, and other lime-secreting marine organisms, along with lime precipitated from the seawater, built up to form the 400-mile-long horseshoe-shaped Capital Reef.  While visiting we toured the visitor center where the kids received their Junior Ranger badges and Polly and I received our Senior Ranger badges.  We also hiked the Smith Spring Trail.

Our time in Carlsbad, NM was short but full of activities.  Now off to White Sands National Monument for a few days.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Everyday Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.