Carlsbad Caverns

I went caving at Carlsbad Caverns during one Southwest road trip.

701380785206_0_ALBGroup photo at Carlsbad Caverns.

     906480785206_0_ALB 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.

     902212785206_0_ALB A little corner in the cave.

     147711785206_0_ALB Trail within the park.

     696480785206_0_ALB Hall of the Giants. These monsters are more than the height of 10 people.

     649211785206_0_ALB Endless passage ways.

     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. 

     770602785206_0_ALB Hiking down (or up?) a narrow tunnel into the lower cave.

     902981785206_0_ALB Oops… very slippery.

    630832785206_0_ALB Ranger pointing out Cave Pearls.

    506481785206_0_ALB 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. 

    743232785206_0_ALB  A bat encased in the limestone.

     115012785206_0_ALB National Geographic Chamber, where Jim White used to descent to the right of the picture.

     carlsbad-discover5 Here is the picture I found on the internet – I was literally standing next to history.

    765822785206_0_ALB 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…?!?

    228191785206_0_ALB within the slot

     http://video.xanga.com/xangaembedplayer2.swf?i=232985&m=c2e65&xt=1Walking within the slot.

    273042785206_0_ALB 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.