Turned North
Thursday, 6 Dec
With the shift to Mountain Standard Time yesterday, our body clocks are all out of whack. First, it got dark an hour earlier than yesterday. Even though we stayed up to our normal bedtime on the new time, we were wide awake at normal Central time.
When we got up, it was 41 degrees - so much for weather forecast of 46 degrees. 5 degrees is no big deal if it is above freezing, but could be a big problem if the actual is below freezing for several hours.
Our main event today was to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which is located about 30 minutes south of Carlsbad, NM. In 1986 when we were driving cross-country, we had planned to visit Carlsbad Caverns only to learn that they were closed due to high water. I don't recall if the high water was on the route to the park, or affected the inside the cave. In any case, Carlsbad Caverns has been on our "must do someday" list for over 32 years. And someday arrived today.
Because we were up earlier than planned, it was easy to be at the Visitor Center when they opened at 8am. It seemed that we went up in elevation a fair amount from Carlsbad to get to the Visitor Center, and were surprised that the temperature outside went up by at least 10 degrees from the town of Carlsbad only 30 minutes earlier.
Because we had a full day planned, we elected not to do the Ranger-guided tours and just do the self-guided tour, starting at the natural entrance, and descending the 780 feet down, and touring the Big Room. When we checked in with the Ranger, he advised we could rent the audio guide from the bookstore for $5. What an awesome option. It was like having a Ranger guide you, without having to stay in a group or struggling to hear if you were not close to the Ranger when they spoke.
As the cave itself does not open for tours until 8:30 am, we had time to take in the video. It was very informative on how the caves formed 260 million years ago. Carlsbad Caverns is not the first National Park with caves, nor is it the largest (Mammoth Cave is the largest). But throughout the self-guided tour, they dropped comments that many people think Carlsbad Caverns are the most beautiful.
Carlsbad Caverns is located on the northwest edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. An interesting fact is that this is the wettest desert in the world - it gets about 10 inches of rain each year. Over 135 miles of passages have been mapped, and they are still finding caves and passages.
The bats were not present as they migrate to Mexico in the winter. However, bats have been using Carlsbad Caverns for tens of thousands of years. In the Big Room, there was a 45,000 year old guano pile.
We chose not to walk out and took elevator - instead of floors, it displayed feet below surface. And it takes you back up to the Visitor Center in about one minute. It is possible to just take the elevator down and back, but that bypasses the natural entrance portion, which was fascinating.
Throughout our 3+ mile walk - down the trail into the natural entrance, down the original cave trail, and around the Big Room - we were continuously left with a major sense of awe! Our visit - a subset of the cave tours that are possible at Carlsbad Caverns - definitely exceeded expectations. If you've ever thought that you wanted to visit Carlsbad Canyon, do it while you're able to enjoy it by doing the whole walk. While there are parts of the Big Room trail that is handicap accessible, it is but a very small portion of the trail system we enjoyed. It was simply amazing, worth every step of the way.
Trying to take cave photos with a 3-year old iPhone just do not do justice to what we got to see.
By the time we got back to Sprinty at 1130, the temperature had dropped to 44 degrees and the wind was howling. Based on the weather forecast:
Photo of winter storm warning
We decided to drive all the way to Albuquerque, 300 miles north of Carlsbad Caverns to avoid the snow. Seems counterintuitive, but freezing rain, sleet and snow were forecast for Friday and Saturday morning. Why Albuquerque you might be thinking. Because Sprinty is approaching his scheduled checkup and oil change, and Mercedes dealers who service Sprinters are few and far between in this part of the country. The dealer in El Paso used to do it, but apparently lost their license/approval from Mercedes, which they hope to get back next year. The dealer in Tucson can do the service, but the service schedule is booked out a week, or more, requiring us to nail what day and time we would be in Tucson - something really challenging when our approach to planning ahead is only looking forward 12-24 hours. The dealer in Albuquerque could get us in on Friday. And when we set up the appointment, we thought we would take two days to get to Albuquerque. Then the Winter Storm Warning/Watch got issued.
Fortunately, the drive was pretty uneventful, except for getting two more rock chips in the windshield (that we know about) from two separate passing trucks. When we left Persidio, TX a few days ago, there was a sign stating there were no services for 74 miles. When we left Roswell, NM (which was 75 miles of no services north of Carlsbad), we traveled about 100 miles with no services until Vaughn , NM. And no sign reminding drivers of that fact.
We did see two cowboy features, one on each side of the road. The one in the photo seems to be saying something to the figure on the opposite side of the road.
We selected the FamCamp at Kirtland Air Force Base in south Albuquerque as our option A for where to have Sprinty rest up before his checkup tomorrow. We arrived about 4pm, and found the RV park was only about half full. Back-in, 30amp, full hookup site for $18.
With the shift to Mountain Standard Time yesterday, our body clocks are all out of whack. First, it got dark an hour earlier than yesterday. Even though we stayed up to our normal bedtime on the new time, we were wide awake at normal Central time.
When we got up, it was 41 degrees - so much for weather forecast of 46 degrees. 5 degrees is no big deal if it is above freezing, but could be a big problem if the actual is below freezing for several hours.
Our main event today was to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which is located about 30 minutes south of Carlsbad, NM. In 1986 when we were driving cross-country, we had planned to visit Carlsbad Caverns only to learn that they were closed due to high water. I don't recall if the high water was on the route to the park, or affected the inside the cave. In any case, Carlsbad Caverns has been on our "must do someday" list for over 32 years. And someday arrived today.
Because we were up earlier than planned, it was easy to be at the Visitor Center when they opened at 8am. It seemed that we went up in elevation a fair amount from Carlsbad to get to the Visitor Center, and were surprised that the temperature outside went up by at least 10 degrees from the town of Carlsbad only 30 minutes earlier.
Because we had a full day planned, we elected not to do the Ranger-guided tours and just do the self-guided tour, starting at the natural entrance, and descending the 780 feet down, and touring the Big Room. When we checked in with the Ranger, he advised we could rent the audio guide from the bookstore for $5. What an awesome option. It was like having a Ranger guide you, without having to stay in a group or struggling to hear if you were not close to the Ranger when they spoke.
As the cave itself does not open for tours until 8:30 am, we had time to take in the video. It was very informative on how the caves formed 260 million years ago. Carlsbad Caverns is not the first National Park with caves, nor is it the largest (Mammoth Cave is the largest). But throughout the self-guided tour, they dropped comments that many people think Carlsbad Caverns are the most beautiful.
Carlsbad Caverns is located on the northwest edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. An interesting fact is that this is the wettest desert in the world - it gets about 10 inches of rain each year. Over 135 miles of passages have been mapped, and they are still finding caves and passages.
The bats were not present as they migrate to Mexico in the winter. However, bats have been using Carlsbad Caverns for tens of thousands of years. In the Big Room, there was a 45,000 year old guano pile.
We chose not to walk out and took elevator - instead of floors, it displayed feet below surface. And it takes you back up to the Visitor Center in about one minute. It is possible to just take the elevator down and back, but that bypasses the natural entrance portion, which was fascinating.
Throughout our 3+ mile walk - down the trail into the natural entrance, down the original cave trail, and around the Big Room - we were continuously left with a major sense of awe! Our visit - a subset of the cave tours that are possible at Carlsbad Caverns - definitely exceeded expectations. If you've ever thought that you wanted to visit Carlsbad Canyon, do it while you're able to enjoy it by doing the whole walk. While there are parts of the Big Room trail that is handicap accessible, it is but a very small portion of the trail system we enjoyed. It was simply amazing, worth every step of the way.
By the time we got back to Sprinty at 1130, the temperature had dropped to 44 degrees and the wind was howling. Based on the weather forecast:
Photo of winter storm warning
We decided to drive all the way to Albuquerque, 300 miles north of Carlsbad Caverns to avoid the snow. Seems counterintuitive, but freezing rain, sleet and snow were forecast for Friday and Saturday morning. Why Albuquerque you might be thinking. Because Sprinty is approaching his scheduled checkup and oil change, and Mercedes dealers who service Sprinters are few and far between in this part of the country. The dealer in El Paso used to do it, but apparently lost their license/approval from Mercedes, which they hope to get back next year. The dealer in Tucson can do the service, but the service schedule is booked out a week, or more, requiring us to nail what day and time we would be in Tucson - something really challenging when our approach to planning ahead is only looking forward 12-24 hours. The dealer in Albuquerque could get us in on Friday. And when we set up the appointment, we thought we would take two days to get to Albuquerque. Then the Winter Storm Warning/Watch got issued.
Fortunately, the drive was pretty uneventful, except for getting two more rock chips in the windshield (that we know about) from two separate passing trucks. When we left Persidio, TX a few days ago, there was a sign stating there were no services for 74 miles. When we left Roswell, NM (which was 75 miles of no services north of Carlsbad), we traveled about 100 miles with no services until Vaughn , NM. And no sign reminding drivers of that fact.
We did see two cowboy features, one on each side of the road. The one in the photo seems to be saying something to the figure on the opposite side of the road.
We selected the FamCamp at Kirtland Air Force Base in south Albuquerque as our option A for where to have Sprinty rest up before his checkup tomorrow. We arrived about 4pm, and found the RV park was only about half full. Back-in, 30amp, full hookup site for $18.
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