July 3

New Mexico!

We finally break free of Texas and arrived in Carlsbad, NM.  It’s not that we didn’t like Texas, its that we lost 11 days of our trip.  I now have to totally reschedule where we will be going and I will have to skip a lot of what we have planned.  I still think we will be able to get to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.

We spent a day and a half in Carlsbad. Our first night was merely, sitting out a storm and doing some laundry.  Most of our adventuring was on July 4th.  I was pretty surprised that Carlsbad Caverns and the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens were both open on a holiday.  Apparently National Parks are open year round (weather permitting) except for Christmas.

Being in New Mexico, we expected a hot day so we decided to go to the Zoo first.  We were all pretty surprised that we were able to see so many animals.  I loved the Elk the most as it was huge (picture the elks in Narnia that people rode).  They also had a reptile house. It should have been a snake house as it was all snakes except one gila monster lizard.  I was glad the boys had a chance to see a rattlesnake and a few other poisonous snakes so they could see how easily they can hide in their environment.  As many times as I can warn them, it helps for them to see their camouflage capabilities.

One of the things that Sean and I liked about the Zoo, were all the different plants that are grown in the area.  Sean was especially giggly over the cows tongue cactus.  Brian was our fearless leader and led us around the 1.5 miles of exhibits.  I highly recommend going to the Living Desert Zoo.  Just remember to wear a hat, sunscreen and bring lots of water.

Next up was Carlsbad Caverns.  First let me say, be prepared to walk a lot!!!  I didn’t realize that its 1.5 miles around main areas of the cavern not counting the walk to the natural entrance that can take 1-2 hours.  We decided to take the elevators down to the main cavern instead.  The elevator goes down 750 feet in 62 seconds.  Sean was pretty impressed with that and the ranger supervising the ride chatted with Sean about it.

Being familiar with Luray Caverns in Virginia and visiting the Lost Sea in TN did not prepare us for how large Carlsbad is.  There are even parts of the cavern that haven’t been explored.  The areas they are currently exploring can take years to map.

Below you will see pictures from both locations.