After a good night’s rest we set off under sunny skies on our way to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park through what can charitably be called boring, seemingly endless scrubland…
The Texas plains soon become populated by fields of wind turbines …
………and then armies of pumpjacks and drilling rigs which seem to pop up like marmots in all directions stretching to the horizon…
….these are accompanied by all manner of oilfield equipment to transport, hold and in some of the towns refineries to convert this resource to black gold…..unfortunately this also makes for a desultory landscape, overlaid in many areas with the sickly smell of oil…..the reality of course is that our society demands this product to fuel our lifestyle and the oil & gas industry has been drilling in Texas since the 1920’s…… the good news is that this area would be a rather desolate stretch of land in any event…
Although we are on secondary roads you can really fly > the posted speed limit is 75mph….but that seems to be only a suggestion, and our Toyota Avalan responds eagerly !!! As we pass into New Mexico the scenery changes not a whit and we are now within striking distance of Carlsbad Caverns National Park our goal for today:
It is situated in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico and as part of the US National Park system was established in 1930. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave, Carlsbad Cavern.
The drive from the plains to the site is pleasant as we climb through a desert environment. A nice facility awaits, contrary to the guide book, there are no lineups and after presenting our National Park Annual Pass we start our 750 meter descent via the natural entrance rather than taking the wimpy elevator…
The walk down which takes about 40 minutes is quite impressive which is difficult to portray in words or by photo.
At the bottom there are several circuits one can take to explore the various caves and we opt for a circular tour which takes about 1.5 hours to complete…..again the natural spectacle is absolutely spell blinding and one can only imagine the curious workings of nature in creating these unique formations, The lighting is subdued with only a white/beige glow illuminating the major features and the path. In France when we visited…they used multi colored lights, while providing more impact …..we found this approach to provide a more natural experience.
We emerge exhilirated by the visit …..definetly a “must do”, if one is remotely close to Carlsbad …….another 1.5 hours of driving and we arrive in Artesia NM……done for the day. A short driving 280miles (450kms) but a pretty full day nonetheless. Check-in at the Heritage Inn a renovated historical building …pleasant accomodations and a welcoming hostess. Dinner at Henry’s BBQ, cafeteria style and believe it or not, no beer and they ran out of ribs arrgh!!
…bonus points if you can see what is wrong with the picture below???
Walked back to the Inn on Main Street (note the refinery in the background):
…..we were the only pedestrians, the place was totally deserted at 18:00….apparently (we learned later) Wednesday is church night. As you can see from pics oil is the main event here:
Some blogging, some TV and lights out!