30-January-2024. Carlsbad Caverns National Park

I went from the "Top of Texas" yesterday to the bottom of New Mexico today!

Carlsburg caverns National Park was super interesting. You drive through the desert to get there and have a choice upon arrival to take a 1.5 mile steep path of switchbacks down into the natural opening of the cave or ride the elevator down 750 feet. I chose the natural opening and was actually surprised at just how steep it was! It would've been much easier had it been steps versus just a steep decline for such a long period of time. But going in the natural entrance gives you much more cave to walk through before you got to the elevators where the "Big Room" begins.

I took a bunch of photos and they just can't do it justice – there's no conveying the scale of the enormity of this cavern. The funny thing is there were so few people there that I felt I had the cave all to myself and didn't worry about getting people in any photos. In hindsight I wish I would've had some people in the pics so that it would've given a better feel for the scope of the formations.

Carlsbad is famous because the interior of the caverns are the most "decorated". Other caves might be deeper or longer or have greater volume but Carlsbad has thousands and thousands of stelagtites, stelagmites, draperies, columns and so many other cool features. The lighting in the cave is actually very dim (my iPhone camera brightened up the pictures considerably). The National Park Service hired a theatrical lighting specialist to install lighting to highlight the many different features in the cave - it's really impressive. There is a grand total of 2.5 miles of underground walking and it takes about 2.5 hours. They have a self guided audio tour which was really interesting and told stories about the early explorers, how tourists used to have to climb down wood staircases to the bottom (and then climb back up!), pointing out different features and explaining how they are formed, and even telling you when you are in an area called "the zoo" where if you use your imagination you can see lots of different creatures in the cave formations.

Upon leaving Carlsbad Caverns NP I decided to take a 30 minute detour and visit the UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico. Roswell is the site of a 1947 incident where a UFO allegedly crashed into a farm field, and the US government suppressed evidence of the spaceship and 4 alien occupants. Locals tell of how they found pieces of a type of metal material that was super light (like plastic) that was unable to be scratched or burned. Supposedly the government collected all evidence and threatened any witnesses with bodily harm should they speak of the incident.

In 2007 the US Department of Defense created an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) task force, which has investigated 140 sightings since it's inception. More recently, footage from fighter jets showing UAP's has been leaked to the public continuing the question of whether alien life exists and may be watching us. In addition to a couple of really funny alien displays the museum has quite an extensive library that contains information on all UFO/UAP sightings and reports.

It was interesting to note that in the whole town of Roswell every store has some type of alien theme or marking - they sure have adopted the little green alien as their mascot.

Who knows .... are we alone or not?!?!

Todays WILD idea: it's great to visit national parks in the off-season! There were only about a dozen hikers on Guadalupe Mountain yesterday and so few people in Carlsbad Cavern today. A park ranger told me today that during the summer months admission to the caverns is completely sold out and it is a crowded line of people pushing through the cave all day long. I've really enjoyed not having to deal with crowds and lines at these amazing places!