The fun parts of Day Four: Carlsbad Caverns

We woke up on Friday to a toasty Texas morning (nearly 100 degrees!) in Pecos. When grabbing breakfast at the front desk, we struck up a conversation with the innkeeper about our trip and where we were planning to go. When we told him where we were headed, he said, "Wow, that's a really long drive for you guys today. Almost eight hours."...and we realized that we had totally miscalculated things because of our setback. Two themes of this trip so far are gratitude (if the innkeeper hadn't said anything, we would have ended up in a sticky situation--we're so thankful!) and flexibility!

We were able to rework things to stay a little closer last night so that we could have plenty of time to visit Carlsbad Caverns. Here are some pictures from the drive to Carlsbad:

(A lot of the driving pictures are blurry because there are SO many bugs on the windshield. You do not want to look at the front of the car right now.)

We arrived at Carlsbad Caverns around lunchtime and had a picnic in the scorching sun (I got sunburned in a matter of a half hour or less!) 

The landscape was so foreign. Oddly, it reminded me of landscapes I had seen in other extreme weather conditions, like in Denali National Park in Alaska--short, scrubby plants, very few signs of life.  I guess even different plants in different locations adapt similarly to the unfavorable conditions of rocky soil and little rain.

 The caverns incredible and our pictures can never do it justice. The cavern is so big and the lighting is so low that the camera can't begin to capture all the depth and detail. Still, we tried. We weren't able to go on any of the guided tours that would have taken us to the super secret places in the caverns, but we did the two self guided tours. We hiked down the steep grade of the natural entrance into the caverns. Here's us at the entrance to the caverns:

(PS: some of our pictures like the one above are awkward because we took them with this stick you put your camera on and hold, called a monopod. It's kind of dorky but super helpful when we both want to be in a picture and there's no one around to take it! We'll crop the photos when we print them for our albums, haha.)

At the entrance of the caverns there were probably 50 or more cave swallows darting in and out and swirling around. Again, the photos couldn't capture that, but it was a really cool sight. In the summer, thousands of bats come out of this cave every night, which we hear is quite a sight to see as well.

Inside the caverns, it is about 54 degrees all the time, so it was chilly, especially compared to the New Mexico blazing heat outside! Also, it is dead silent, except for occasional dripping water and for any sound you're making. The caverns were formed by a massive underground sea a long time ago, and the "decorations" were formed by dripping water, but most of that dripping water has dried up, so in many places literally the only sound is your breath or footsteps. The silence alone was incredible.

Here is a random sampling of the formations:

Of course, the cave is well-photographed by people much more talented than us, so go check out some photos somewhere else to better see how incredible this place is. Even better, plan to experience it some time in your lifetime. While Carlsbad Caverns is not the longest, deepest, or biggest set of caverns, it is probably the most beautiful due to all the extensive formations on the inside of it.

One of the formations was called the "Rock of Ages". In the olden days, the guide through the caverns used to stop at that formation, turn off all the lights in the caverns, then lead the tour group in the hymn "Rock of Ages". That would have been an incredible experience, in pitch black surrounded by the echoing hymn declaring the great wonders of God. Walking through the caverns you see all the intricacies and can't help but think that these things (or even just the natural processes behind them!) have to be designed, or created, not merely thrown together in the chaos of time. Creation truly declares the glory of God!

We grabbed some New Mexico specialties on the way out:

The prickly pear cactus taffy wasn't all that distinctive-tasting. The cherry cider tasted like Cheerwine without any carbonation, and the raspberry cider tasted mostly like tart raspberry juice.

We headed out of Carlsbad towards Ruidoso Downs, where we stayed last night. We stopped for dinner in Roswell, hoping to find a UFO-themed restaurant. Unfortunately, there are no specifically UFO themed restaurants, but fortunately, every restaurant and business had aliens around:

Even the street lamp globes had alien eyes painted on them! I wasn't able to catch a picture of that, though.

For dinner we stopped at a place called Billy Ray's and split a chile relleno stuffed steak. The chef writes messages on every dish.

That's pretty much it for Friday. It's getting late here so I guess I'll have to keep you in suspense for all that happened today!

Again, thanks everyone for all your thoughts/prayers/encouragement/comments. We love you and miss you all!