March 25, Carlsbad Caverns

We arrived at Carlsbad Caverns National Park www.nps.gov/cave . Over 30 miles of passages have been explored since it's discovery in 1901 by James White. The deepest chamber is 1,037 ft below the surface.

The Natural entrance to the cave is a self-guided tour for visitors with plenty of time and in good physical health. The route descends 750 ft into the earth following  steep & narrow trails through a tall and spurious trunk passage called the Main Corridor. It ends in the lunchroom.





We took the elevator down to the lunchroom/rest area, which is 755 feet below the surface. It was from this location that we went on the 1 1/2 hour ranger-led "King's Palace" Tour.

In the King's Palace, 830 feet below the desert surface, we viewed various incredible formations such as stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, columns and popcorn. Unfortunately, a lot of the photos were dark.

This formation is called "The Queen's Draperies", which formed when water runs down a slanted ceiling.

An interesting thing happened while we were in the Queen's Chamber, the Ranger turned off all the artificial lights, which revealed the permanent inky blackness of the natural cave environment. It was soooooo dark that we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces! It was TOTAL DARKNESS.

This eroded flowstone formation is called "The Bashful Elephant".

After a lunch break, we followed the self-guided "Big Room Tour", a 1.3 mile tour using audio devices that explained what we were looking at along the way. The "Big Room" is the largest known natural limestone chamber in the western hemisphere. Floor space is estimated at more than 600,000 square feet, an area comparable to to 14 football fields (American, of course!)

Mirror Lake - The sign (in the distance) is upside-down, so as to be read reflected in the water. It takes water 8 months to reach here from the surface.





All in all, it was an AWESOME, FASCINATING tour!