We left Palo Duro State Park on Friday morning and made the super boring drive through west Texas and eastern New Mexico. Sorry Lubbock, I was not impressed. It was a very long drive that even changed time zones. We got to Carlsbad Caverns around 3pm Mountain Time. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this stop because my cell phone died and the camera was in the car. So I will put some pictures from Google on this posting. Just try to use your imagination. The visitors center has a restaurant (where we later had dinner), a gift shop (of course), and exhibits about the cave. You have two choices when you come in how to get into the cave. The natural entrance is a 45 minute hike down 750 feet. It is steep and not recommended for anyone in a wheel chair (duh). No strollers of any kind are allowed in the cave at all. Shawn and Patrick took the natural entrance and Natalie and I opted for the elevator. The cave is a wonderfully cool 56 degrees, practically freezing after our days in the canyon. We brought sweatshirts and enjoyed the cool air. The hike through the self-guided area is about 2 miles. There are bathrooms and another gift shop down in the cave. Like all the other national parks, they offered a junior ranger program that the kids participated in to earn a patch or badge. We saw all kinds of amazing formations including soda straws, stalagmites, stalactites, drapes, and columns. There were pools of water and very deep holes to peer into. They offer special tours for those that like to crawl around caves and enjoy small spaces. We did not take one of those tours, instead we stuck with the self-guided tour. At 7:30, they allow people to start lining up near the mouth of the cave to see the bats emerge. We still had a 2 hour drive and a time change not in our favor, so we skipped the bats. The drive to Davis Mountains State Park was beautiful. We drove past El Capitan and the Guadelupe Mountains National Park. We saw a thunderstorm in the distance over the mountains and the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. We arrived at the state park at 11pm.
More about the park in the next posting.
The next evening we drove the 13 miles through the mountain pass to the McDonald Observatory. They have one of the largest research telescopes in the country and on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights they host Star Parties. The party starts at 9:30 pm in the summer. There were around 100 other people there. We sat outside on a circle of stone benches while the astronomer took us on a tour of the night sky with a green laser pointer. We even saw a meteor streak across the sky. After the sky tour, we went into the telescope park to look through a dozen or so telescopes at stars and planets. We saw Saturn well enough to see it's rings! After the full moon rise around 10:45, we got to see the moon through a telescope. Even with the UV filter it was still very bright, but it was so neat to see all the craters. We left there a little after 11pm. Some people brought small children and babies, but this is really more of an older kids and adults event. It is so late at night and when looking through the telescopes you mustn't touch or it will move it out of focus. So there were a few screaming tired toddlers, but it was still a fun night.
The next morning after checking out of the Indian Lodge, we drove out of the mountains and into the dessert. Our last park of the trip was Balmorhea State Park. This park is very special because it is an oasis. A natural spring with perfectly crystal clear, cold water comes up to form a swimming hole 22 feet deep in some spots. Patrick snorkeled and even jumped off the tall diving board. They have trees for picnicking under and 2 diving boards to show off your skills. We stayed for 2 hours of refreshing fun before driving off to Fort Stockton and on to home. Bring food to Balmorhea because there is NOWHERE to eat for 100 miles other than a few small sketchy looking Mexican restaurants.
No comments:
Post a Comment