We left Roswell early and arrived in Carlsbad, NM with plenty of time to take in Carlsbad Caverns. What an amazing treat awaits us.
Who would have imagined that this natural entrance was JUST scatching the surface of what we would soon see.
There's Gail and Shannon, way down there.
Our journey begins now. The journey of the caverns began 265 million years ago. SW New Mexico and Eastern Texas were both inland seas composed mostly of sponges and algae . Over millions of years of compression it changed to limestone. Several million years later, tectonic upheavels separated it from the vast ocean to the west and slowly it rose above sealevel. Over the last ten million years of cracking, dripping water and sulfuric gases, a cavern developed, and voila we have Carlsbad.
We would soon be awed by unbelievably amazing sites at each turn. I can't show you the hundreds of pictures I took during our 3 hour walk down and through these caverns.
I will share the ones with the most impressive variety of formation or abundance of flowstones, stalactites, statacmites, helmites, hictmites, helicttites, soda straws and columns.
The caverns are also a summer haven and maternity ward for the Brazilian free-tailed bats. At dusk thousands of bats fly out of the natural cave entrance then return at dawn.
This is a bat sculpture paying homage to this amazing nightly flight.
The view from the cavern's visitor center is impressive. A panorama of New Mexico and Texas in the distance.
It was a beautiful day and a jaw dropping experience. How fortunate we are to see such a magnificent work of nature.
Come back okay.
Susan
Soo cool! I loved this post!
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