June 29, 2016

CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK

This turned out to be more interesting than I thought. Carlsbad Caverns is an underground cave that is deep in the earth and extends over many miles.

When you get there you have two ways to get to the main cave (called the Big Room). You can go to the Visitor’s Center and take an elevator down to the cave (it is 750 feet down – the size of a 75 story building). That takes about 50 seconds.

Or you can go to the natural opening of the cave in the side of a mountain and walk down. That takes about an hour and you really have to be in pretty good shape to travel the winding paths that lead to the Big Room and some of the areas are pretty tight and dark. Of course, I took the path less travelled. I don’t recommend it if you are claustrophobic or afraid of the dark.

Once at the lowest level, you can explore for yourself or take a guided tour by a Park Ranger. I was going to spend the whole day there, so I did both. The guided tour was extremely interesting and educational.

I am sure we all remember learning about stalactites and stalagmites in science class. Those are the formations that occur in caves as water from the surface slowly seeps down through the earth. As it makes its journey, the water picks up minerals. Drops of water hang from the cave ceiling. The water eventually evaporates and a tiny piece of mineral is left. Over millions of years, the formation grows towards the floor of the cave.  These are called stalactites. Sometimes the water drops to the floor and the formation starts growing upwards. These are the stalagmites. Over a very long period (in the case of Carlsbad, about 250 million years), the result is absolutely stunning. I will post some pictures, but you really have to see them in person to appreciate the beauty of the formations.

I don’t want to get all judgmental here, but, there are actually people who think the earth is only about six thousand years old. I would advise those people to come to this place and see all the exhibits and explanations. If they still don’t believe, then … well, I give up.

I won’t bore you with everything I learned in that cave, but here is just one more example. At some point in the guided tour, when we got to a fairly small room in the cave, the Ranger turned off all the artificial lights and he told us to be very quiet.

When you are 750 feet below the surface, you experience total darkness and total silence. There is virtually no other place to experience that. Even in a very dark room, our eyes adjust to the darkness and we can see at least the shapes of things in the room. Our ears can hear sounds of traffic or people or weather outside the room, but we never experience total darkness and total silence. It was a very eerie experience. I highly recommend it.

Here are some pics: