Carlsbad Caverns (one) — “the postcard experiment,” inside the Caverns on November 29, images and photos © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Dear Mom,
You wouldn’t believe the Caverns. They are so cool. I haven’t been here since a Fifth Grade field trip with Alvarado Elementary. Remember?
Dad dropped me off at the school parking lot at 3:30 in the morning. It was dark. They served us McIlheney Dairy milk (probably unpasturized in those days) and store-bought donuts. Gross. Last thing you’d want in your stomach before a four-hour bus ride.
But the Caverns themselves are everything I remember and more. Wish you were here.
Love from me
Dear Mom,
Carlsbad Caverns is called the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” And it is. We walked all day long, took a guided tour of an area called King’s Palace and then we did two self-guided tours.
This formation was called something like Walrus Tooth, except that wasn’t it. I should have taken notes. As it was, it was hard to take photos. They fall way short of the real beauty and magic. (Although, I have to say, in the Visitors Center there is a display of Cavern photos by Ansel Adams that are just stunning.)
Hope Sony is being a good girl.
Love you,
moi
Dear Mom,
I just found out that you and Dad have never been to Carlsbad Caverns. I can’t believe it! You’ve got to see it. Dad almost made me cry on the cell phone when he said it’s probably too late for him. Not so, I told him. We can rent a wheelchair. I saw several people in wheelchairs down there.
There’s a 750-foot elevator that takes you down in less than two minutes, or you can walk all the way down via the original entrance. We did both, and I preferred walking (I got a little creeped out by the elevator at first, but by the third ride I was old hat). We’ll definitely take the elevator with Dad.
They say January is the best time to come. We can visit Aunt Erma and Uncle Henry in Lincoln, just like we did this trip. Hopefully there won’t be snow.
All for now. We love you.
Yo
Dear Mom,
Next time we come to Carlsbad Caverns, we’ll stay in Roswell. It’s a lot cuter than the town of Carlsbad. Plus, Carlsbad kind of stinks. All that natural gas and oil. (Not in the Caverns, but above ground. I guess that’s part of the geology that went into forming these caves.)
Did you know that a guy named Jim White “discovered” the Caverns in about 1901? He was 16 or 17 years old, riding the Chihuahuan Desert on his horse, when he noticed a huge black flume coming from a hole in the ground. Turned out to be millions of bats.
He came back, made a ladder out of fencing wire and branches, and went down more than 200 feet to explore on his own. He almost lost his mind, which I can understand. (They did a black-out on the guided tour, and whew, talk about dark.)
It took him over 20 years to get other folks to come take a look. You know what finally did it? He invited a photographer down and, well, the rest is history.
Give Sony a kiss for me.
Me
Dear Mom,
I took lots of pictures of the whole trip, which I’ll show you when I get back. The Caverns were my favorite part, but we also rode an old paddle boat down the Pecos River at night. (I didn’t know it flowed all the way down here.)
People who live on the riverbank set up holiday lights and fancy displays; it’s called “Christmas on the Pecos.” (Although, we went late, the 8:15 tour, and it was so cold on the boat, we couldn’t feel our toes. Jim and I called it “Torture on the Pecos,” but just as an insider joke. We really did love it.)
Thanks for taking care of Sony. I’m sure she’s enjoying it. We’ll be in late to pick her up. More then.
yb
-related to post: The Dying Art Of Letter Writing (Postcards From The Edge)
Load your dad up in the wheelchair and go to Carlsbad Caverns. If you need someone to push him, I’ll go. I have never been and it looks amazing. Great photos. The total darkness thing scares me A LOT, but it’s like going over the first hill on the roller coaster and then, the lights are on and I’m okay.
Christmas on the Pecos sounds fun. I like it when people do things spontaneously for the enjoyment of others.
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We are definitely going to take him. You know, it came as a total surprise to me that he’d never been. Dad was famous for loading up the kids and driving to this place or that place. He took us camping all the time. We divined water for friends who had a cabin in the mountains. We picked pinon and fished for trout. We took road trips all over New Mexico.
I guess I just figured he’d gone to the Caverns at some point. When I got to my Aunt Erma’s for a visit, she said, Why didn’t you bring your dad? She said she and her husband (they’re both in their early 80s) and my mom and dad had for ages talked about taking a trip there together.
So, yeah, we’re going back. I really want him to see it. And Mom, Erma, and Henry, too.
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BTW, Bob, the total darkness was just amazing. I waved my hands in front of my face, and while I could see what my eyes imagined to be my hands, I honestly couldn’t see a thing. And then I thought about ol’ Jim White exploring those caves in 1901 and 1902, with his homemade “lantern”—a coffee kettle filled with oil and a make-shift wick. Could you imagine?
At one point, the first time he went down, he said after a few hours he got kind of spooked. (I read his account.) He kind of lost his bearings and started to panic being that far underground and in the darkness. So he tried to get a grip and leaned against a wall and said outloud to himself something like, “Be still now, Jim.” Then his voice came back, echoing, and that nearly drove him mad.
What a character he must have been. He went back down with a Mexican kid who they called “Kid.” For three days the two of them explored. Sleeping down in the Caverns…whew! Those were a couple of courageous young men, to say the least.
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ybonesy, welcome back. And what a fantastic post! I thoroughly enjoyed it and nice job with the postcards around your photographs.
Wow, I really want to see these caves now. Maybe next time I come to New Mexico. I’ve always wanted to get down further south because of the crane and raptor migrations that head that direction. Ah, someday.
I read your links, too, and the Jim White story…wow, I would have gone insane. Can you imagine how dark and strange that would have been, like you said, to not be able to see your hands and to hear your own voice echoing from the bowels of the Earth!
I went spelunking in a cave once in my twenties. I was with about 10 people and had to crawl through some really small holes (I probably couldn’t fit through today). For some reason, I wasn’t too freaked out then. But I can’t imagine doing that today.
So I just touched on your links, but in the second photograph, is that a light inside the cave or fire? And were these formed from volcanoes? Also, why is it best to go in January?
I hope you get to go back with your Mom and Dad. Sounds fun to do. And how cool that you were there last in grade school. Wow. Blast from the past.
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Ybonesy,
Carlsbad Caverns N.P. was Tania’s favorite place we visited on our trip to NM back in 2002. She loved camping out, which I thought was no big deal. She liked caverns too. Very cool!
MM
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Cool, MM. I didn’t know you two had gone there. I can see why she was so impressed.
QM, the formations inside the caverns are formed by water dripping through the limestone. As the water drips, it carries limestone deposits. The stalagmites, which grow up from the ground, are where the deposits have dripped on top of one another. The stalactites (hanging tightly to the roof of the cavern) are where the drips form at the end of the formation, making it grow longer.
We saw tiny stalactites that had grown for 76 years, since a tunnel had been dug out to allow passage. Those stalactites were about the size of the tip of your pinky finger. So the large formations, the ones as big as a six-story building, must have formed hundreds of thousands of years.
My understanding is that the caverns themselves (and not the formations in them) were once an ocean reef that eventually got covered with sediment as the geology of the area changed from ocean to desert.
I just found this thorough (with pictures, even) site that shows the geology of Carlsbad Caverns, and has all the names of the types of formations (like popcorn, drapery, pearls) you can see: Carlsbad Cavern Geology (LINK).
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QM, why January? Well, it’s the month with the lowest attendance, and for me (and my mom), when you mix being 750-feet underground with darkness and dampness and crowds, well, it can be a bit overwhelming. Less crowds are better.
Also, there are several guided tours one can take, and some of them involve crawling in total darkness through small areas. But they only take up to 15 people at a time in some cases through certain areas, and so those sell out early in peak months. For example, we would have loved to go on a smaller tour this trip, but the small ones were filled.
I’d like to see the main cavern again, with my parents, and then perhaps catch one of those smaller tours with the kids and Jim the next day, or something like that. We’ll have to plan it out yet.
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Oh, oops, just remembering your other question. Some of the more dramatic formations have lighting to really highlight them. All the lighting is done in an unobtrusive way, often hidden from sight. And there are long stretches with very little lighting, just enough to see the magnitude of some of the “rooms” in the Caverns and the depth of some of the pits.
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Hey where is my postcard? I think I played a pretty big role in this whole trip! haha I also haven’t been back to the caverns in more than 10 years and I think it’s about time to travel down to Carlsbad.
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That’s a great teaching link, ybonesy. I like the Flowstone, the Popcorn, and the Totem Poles — “skinny as the stalactite above it. However, some are taller than skyscrapers and bigger than a giant redwood.” That scale is so hard to imagine.
Yes, makes total sense about going in the off-season. That’s the time I’d want to go, too, and often do go on vacations. Like Duluth and Lake Superior in the middle of the winter. No crowds. You kind of have it all to yourself.
The timeline in that link…I just can’t wrap my mind around time placement like 230 million years ago, 20 to 40 million years ago. Or even 2 to 4 million years ago. It makes our lifetimes seem like a speck.
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Remember that old saying they taught in science class? When the mites go up, the tights go down. That was how a memory tool for which rock formations in caves were stalagtites and stalagmites.
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I like the epistolary style of blogging – it creates a more immediate effect.
The part about your dad saying it might be too late for him got to me too. Sound like you’re going to bring him. Good!
Great photos. Some of them look like hot lava.
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Dear Adam Miguel,
Sorry we forgot to send you a postcard. Probably due to the fact that we sent you a few text messages. Sorry about the turkey food. (Jim gave them several days’ worth of food, which I didn’t know, and so I didn’t add that to your note.)
Did your mom take you to Carlsbad? Wouldn’t be surprised. You guys have gone just about everywhere. Good mom, yours. Tell her I said hi.
Your favorite aunt,
yb
p.s., You did a stellar job housesitting. The house looked great (been meaning to text or call all day, but alas, am now packing last minute for Vietnam) and the dogs happy. Did you hear any weird noises at night?
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Christine, some do look like hot lava. For example, the ones that look like drapes. That’s probably why one might also wonder if volcanoes were involved. I think it took geologists some time to figure out how these caverns were formed.
Yeah, QM, the hundreds of millions of years thing…mind boggling. We are specks. If we were limestone formations, we literally would be specks after our 80 or 90 or 100 years on this earth. In cavern-terms, that is. Like the infant stalactite we say.
Bob, I learned this one in elementary school: stalagtites hold on tight to the ceiling. That’s how you know they’re the ones hanging down. 8)
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Plenty of scary noises. Enough to have me turn on the flood lights on a few times. My mom took us there after a soccer tourney in Roswell. It was beautiful and I’m eager to get back! It would be fun to go with Papa! I know he would enjoy it!
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I find it so amazing you can just pack up and be at Carlsbad Caverns in a few hours. How cool is that? It’s been awhile since we visited there – took all the kids and did the Roswell stopover too. ET was big then and we bought these creepy alien blow ups to give to all the cousins. They were maybe 2 feet tall – I still remember thinking they were creepy, but I’m pretty sure on of th littler cousins – maybe 3 years old – took hers to bed with her for many weeks. Ick!
As far as the Caverns, so so so cool. I loved the formations. I didn’t take photos then – would love to have my camera down there now. Wonder if they let you bring down a tripod – probably not, too dangerous if you accidentally hit a structure, though you can always make a decent 3 point tripod with a piece of string and a weight. Ah, now you’ve got me thinking and wondering how I can get Casrlsbad into my next trip…
I remember the bats. Did you mention the bats? I don’t remember. But the bats flying out of the caverns at dusk – astonishing!
And the age…yes, we are mere specks. And being underground and with a crowd…definitely go off peak. And the courage of the earliest explorers…wow! And the postcards…very clever.
I just love this post!!! I am such a big fan of the National Parks. I really love this kind of post. Thanks a bunch for all the inspiration and the links.
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Dear yb:
I have a fear of dark places, but seeing so much beauty in your images gives me pause. Still, about six months ago, I saw the movie, “The Descent” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435625/) and it kind of scared the living crap out of me all over again about caves. Like a living plume of bats would. I’m no Jim White. Would need you to tie a rope around my waist and lead the way. Also, bring lunch.
Flannista
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Adam, aren’t those flood lights the best? When we first moved to the house, I’d accidentally leave them on and have the house lit up like a football stadium. I can only imagine the effect they have on animals creeping up close to the house.
Bo, we drove over 700 miles in three days. It took only three-and-a-half hours to get there (direct route), but then we did a very circuitous way back. I love to drive, could drive for days straight, and Jim’s kind of that way, and the girls are pretty good about it, too. We make lots of stops, we’ll even stop to hunt for fossils just to get fresh air.
This time we stopped in Roswell, did the UFO Museum (for a future post), went to a Mexican bakery, walked Route 66, ate breakfast Sunday morning in Cloudcroft (never been there before), stopped in Ruidoso, walked around an old simple cemetery for soldiers (Ft. Stanton) and had a four-hour visit with my aunt and uncle, including homemade enchiladas, tacos, and cake! And yet, it didn’t seem like we were on the road all that much. Weird.
I need to use that “National Parks” tag. I’m a big fan of national parks, too. And in Cloudcroft, sitting in the little cafe where we ate, I saw a small article in the El Paso Times saying that attendance to National Parks had dropped markedly in the past couple of decades. Families, it seems, don’t much like to camp??
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Dear Flann,
I haven’t seen that movie, and being as how I’ll be boarding a long flight over dark and scary oceans later on, I don’t think I should select it in the unlikely event that it appears as one of the options on my movie viewer.
But, these caverns are, well, cavernous. You are walking upright and the ceiling of some of the caverns are stories above you, like being in a huge gynamisum that just happens to be growing oddly shaped formations all over the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Also, no food or drinks except for pure water allowed in the caverns. Apparently, the animals above ground will actually smell the goods and crawl in, where they get trapped and die. But the best food in all of Carlsbad, methinks, happens to be in the visitor center restaurant. Authentic carne adovada, burritos, salads, panini sandwiches—you name it. Good stuff, good price, friendly folks.
I am sure you will do just fine should you venture south. Also, a few more miles and you’re in Mexico and/or Texas, depending on which direction you go. Knd of fun place to explore, especially if you’re a fan of deserts.
Cheers,
moi
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yb,
it’s a part of the whole syndrome of kids growing up with a “nature deficit” — not as comfortable in the out of doors as inside. Actually afraid, phobic, of “wild places” even though most National Parks, etc. have many spaces that aren’t the least bit wilderness-y.
And I suppose part is missing their necessities like internet, cell phones, immediate social connections, the need for a constant media overload.
It’s been happening for decades now, and one reason natural areas – not just on National levels – are getting budget cuts. Less demand, fewer users.
Hard for me to even imagine a preference for a strip mall over a hike in a forest or along a seashore.
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Oh, I forgot to say – that UFO museum in Roswell is a hoot!!! What a crazy place, crazy town, but I loved it all. I’ll be on the look out for your UFO post – that should be good!
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Dear moi,
Thanks for the cheers and the reassurances that the caverns are, well, cavernous. I like that gymnasium analogy, though being close to the nation’s Capitol building, was wondering if they are as high as the dome. Inside this building are oddly-shaped formations as well, though most are legislators from the Deep South. Like dark places, they kind of freak me out, too.
Appreciate the details about the visitor center restaurant. Sounds de-lish.
Meant to tell you earlier how much I get a kick out of receiving real postcards in the mail. I use them for bookmarks. Wish we sent more postcards and fewer emails. Guess I’m saying that because I’m a fan of deserts (more than caverns, sorry) and also because I like to see REAL handwriting. Yeah, I do. And that someone licked a stamp and walked someplace to stick something in a mailbox for me. You know, like they had an ADVENTURE to mail me something. Kind of like visiting caverns and such.
Blessings, Flann
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I was going to ask “Why is it that cave tours always include turning out the lights?” But of course I know why. To scare the tourists. Well, ok, that’s probably not why. I’m sure they do it so you can get a sense of true dark.
Your photos came out wonderfully well. Cave lighting conditions have frustrated me more than a few times.
I’ve never been to Carlsbad Caverns. The park is on my list of parks I want to visit.
I enjoyed this post, YB. I like the postcard idea. I still send postcards when I travel. (And enjoy receiving them when other people travel!)
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Bo, that’s right. The “nature deficit.” I’d love to learn more about it. Perhaps you could do a piece on it. We talked about that at one time, yes? And what can we do about it? Is it just one of those things that we lose over time? Or is there an effort to do more education?
I read in that same article that rising gas prices also accounted for the decline in national park visits, and while that made some sense, especially this past summer when prices were approaching $4 a gallon, I also thought more people would opt to do road trips, as the gas for a road trip is surely less than for an airline ticket. But not so. I think people opted to not do any vacations, which I can understand.
Yeah, the UFO post will be forthcoming. We got a few good pics, and mostly I just have this unnatural love for all things UFO and otherworldly. Chupacabras, anyone?
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Flann, not knowing the exact height of the dome, I’m not 100% sure that some of the ceilings in the caverns are that high, but if memory serves me right, in some of the biggest most expansive areas, there was up to 300 ft from where we stood to where the highest point in the cave ceiling. That’s a lot of air between you and the roof.
Now, there are hundreds of miles of Caverns, with just a fracton open to the public. I do think that you’d probably want to avoid something called Spider Cave, which one can tour at the Caverns, and which involves crawling through small spaces with a lantern in hand. Not sure I could handle that one. Spiders and small spaces. Hmmmm.
Robin, lol on the scaring tourists answer. Could be. A way of saying, don’t try this on your own, folks. Frankly, I’m amazed people don’t wander into the Caverns and off the trail and never make it out. But there are a lot of emergency phones along the trail, with signs encouraging one to report any abuses, including touching the formations. The oil from one’s hands will cause the formations to stop growing.
And Robin, not many photos were usable. Many many more not than were. Oh, and someone asked about tripods. Yes, a couple of people had them that I saw.
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Wow. I throughly enjoyed this! I’ve never been to the Carlsbad Caverns.
I have been to the Craighead Caverns with the Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tennessee, twice. This is the description off their web site:
“Deep inside a mountain near Sweetwater in East Tennessee is a remarkable body of water known as The Lost Sea. Listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as America’s largest underground lake, the Lost Sea is part of an extensive and historic cave system called Craighead Caverns.”
Now I want to see Carlsbad Caverns…NM is definitely on my list of places I want to visit! 🙂
I hope you will be able to take your Dad and others in January. I’m looking forward to reading about his adventure!
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Dear yb,
I truly enjoyed reading about the Carlsbad Caverns and looking at the fantastic photos! What a neat field trip. I never lived close enough to go on a field trip to anything interesting like that. Darn!
I’ve never been to the caverns. There are some a few hours away from where I live in Oregon but it warns that if you can’t “do” stairs, you shouldn’t go and I can’t do stairs. If I am ever near Carlsbad’s caverns, I’ll go see. I’ve always wanted to go there.
Thanks for all the information!
Your Friend
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