Carlsbad NM - 2018

We arrived at "The Ranch" in Lakewood NM on 11 April 2018 and plan on leaving on the 18th.  Just enough time to check out the area...I hope.  We rolled into the campground which is an Escapees RV Club only campground.  They had a deal for first timers there.  It was $50 plus electricity for the week.  Boy that was cheap.  We payed close to $200 a week at the campgrounds in Colorado.  We liked this campground as you will see during the campground review at the bottom of this chapter.

   

On Thursday (12 Apr) we headed down to Carlsbad Caverns National Park to check it out.  We weren’t sure if it was open or not.  We read that it was only open on weekends in one document and another said it was open.  We also read that the elevator was broke.  Right.  I am sure that is working by now…Nope.  Still broke.  That’s ok.  I just wanted to go to the opening of the cave and check it out anyway since Terry was still hurting.

    When we got there, we found out the natural entrance (the only way to get in now) was about 1.2 miles down to get to the main cavern (grand, great, big, whatever they were calling it) and then another mile or so around the cavern and then a short 1.2 miles back up.  If I remember right, there was about 1000-foot drop in elevation from the opening to the main cavern.  Since we knew it would take a bit to do the whole thing (if we did it) and it was lunch time (we all know I like my food), we decided to eat at the cafeteria.  If it cost a little more, then we could have given them Terry’s bad leg as a payment, but nope.  She is stuck with it. Oh, did I say her back pain was also making her leg numb and painful at the same time.  Anyway, we ate our food and off to the opening of the cave we go.

   The first stop, a ranger briefing, basically stating it’s a steep climb down and back up.  They said the farther you go down, the farther you have to go back up.  We saw plenty of people breathing really hard on their way up.  That was encouraging.  Terry wasn’t in a lot pain and I also had her walk back up a little way to ensure she didn’t hurt more doing that.  She said she was good and down we went.  There was like three sections of paths that was very steep (you will see that in some of the pictures).  But we made it without issue.  We walked around the main cavern and then headed back.  To my surprise, I didn’t see Batman or Robin.  Go figure.  The climb up wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.  We did our stops along the way, passed younger people, and was also passed by younger and older people.  I guess we were just average hikers.  Towards the top, we went past this one lady, she was about 30 yards from the top and if I had to guess, weighed about 400 pounds.  I don’t see how she was going to get out from where she was then, let alone if she went further down.  She was already breathing hard and she was going downhill.  Ok, enough of picking on people…for now.  After that, we headed home.  We didn’t stay to see the bats fly because it was windy and we are told they don’t come out when it’s windy (they would just be blown away).  When we got back up, Terry said all her pain was gone.  She was a happy camper…until the next day when it started hurting more then before we did it.  But a day after that, her back and leg was even better…better being the relative word.  Here are the pictures we took.  It's not your eyes, some of the pictures..ok maybe more then some) are blurry, but I didn't have a tripod with me and it was dark.  We were in a cave you know. But Showed some good points.

   On Saturday, we traveled to Roswell to check out the UFO Museum & Research Center.  That was pretty lame.  I don’t know what I was hoping to see, but it wasn’t there. 

So off to the Walker Aviation Museum in town.  It was great.  It was located at the airport.  We almost walked right by it.  It too wasn’t very impressive, but they did have a large selection of aircraft that you could look at (in the display case).  Yes, they were plastic models of planes.  We giggled and then had some lunch and went home.  Now we can say we have been there, did that.

   Then later that afternoon, we went back to Carlsbad caverns in the evening to see the bats fly.  We were told by the ranger when we sat down and by all the signs everywhere to turn off all electronics.  I guess they scare the bats.  While we were listening to the ranger and waiting for the bats to come out, one poor sucker pulled his phone out for some reason and it was on.  The ranger with the gun came down and told him to get out.  He said “But I didn’t take any pictures!”  the ranger didn’t care and kicked him out of the park.  After that excitement, we saw a bunch (about 8) Turkey vultures fly over in a formation of sorts.  Even the Ranger was surprised to see that.  It must be uncommon for that.  After another 30 minutes or so, as the sun was going down, we saw a bat…well maybe. They are small and somewhat fast.  Then another and another.  Not one right after another but several minutes in between each one.  In the end I think we saw a whopping 12 or so bats.  Must have been too early in the season.  So, we went home.

   On Sunday, we visited the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.  There wasn’t a lot there.  Some hiking trails and old buildings are in the area.  We did a couple of short hikes but didn’t do the long hike to the top because of Terry’s injuries. (didn’t want to have to carry her back).  But it was something different and part of history.

   The rest of the time we hid in our RV (except one night we got to have a fire) because the wind would just blow you away.  I know this, because I was the lucky one to take the dog out for walks.  Here are the pictures we took here.

    I guess that is it for this chapter.  Besides for the wind, it was a fun stop (and warm mostly).  The review for the campground can be seen here, or on the Camping Reviews page (link on the right).

Our next stop is Raton, NM, then on to Colorado.