I went caving at Carlsbad Caverns during one Southwest road trip.
Group photo at Carlsbad Caverns.
Going down the Nature Entrance Trail, a giant hole in the ground.
Once we got down into the cave, we discovered just how enormous this place is. The big room is said to be bigger than 5 football fields.
Hall of the Giants. These monsters are more than the height of 10 people.
In the afternoon, we went on to the ranger guided 3 hour tour of the Lower Cave, which involved climbing down (and then out) a series of rope/ladder and crawling through a section of very narrow passage way.
Hiking down (or up?) a narrow tunnel into the lower cave.
Ranger pointing out Cave Pearls.
Our ranger guide told us Jim White used to pull out the center piece while telling people it was the only structure that was supporting this particular chamber.
A bat encased in the limestone.
National Geographic Chamber, where Jim White used to descent to the right of the picture.
Here is the picture I found on the internet – I was literally standing next to history.
Entering a tight slot. Our guide took us into a small chamber and then turned off all lights. The resulting total darkness and the silence were just eerie. So eerie that my buddy got scared and started hyperventilating. Later on when I asked him what was going on, he said he couldn’t help but think thats how it would feel like if he was burried alive, as in Kill Bill…?!?
http://video.xanga.com/xangaembedplayer2.swf?i=232985&m=c2e65&xt=1Walking within the slot.
Another and last part of the tour, crawling through tunnels. By now, the extra weight of the helmet was starting to give me a tension headache.