Our base for the first few days of this trip was located in Carlsbad, New Mexico on the border of Texas. An uneventful three hour, nighttime drive from El Paso (besides the border patrol checkpoint 30 minutes outside the city...) brought us into one of the oil boom parts of the United States. The unusual number of pickup trucks with various company names such as Halliburton in hotel parking lots quickly explained the high hotel rates we had noticed when booking our room (points to the rescue!).
The next morning finally allowed a chance to see the desert scenery as we drove to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We had booked the morning tour of King's Palace online, which was good because the tour was in fact full even during our winter visit. The Ranger led tours allow visitors to access caves otherwise off limits, but some require crawling on your belly so if small spaces aren't your thing...pick a different one.
We were advised that we had arrived too late to start the Natural Entrance self guided tour. It takes an hour, so if you want to combine that with your guided tour inside the caves make sure to arrive early. We'd have to come back for the Natural Entrance another day.
Rock walls were visible through the glass as the elevator descended underground. As our ears popped, we eyed a counter that displayed feet underground, rather than levels. First 50, then 100, and on until we reached the end, 750 feet below ground. We exited the elevator into a large dark room (surprise!) and waited for our eyes to adjust to the dim lights. While waiting for the start of our tour, we perused the gift shop and visited the restrooms since an ice storm earlier in the month busted the pipes to the ones in the visitor center above.
Soon, a ranger announced the the beginning of our tour and we lined up with forty or so others visitors. Mike, our ranger, gave a brief introduction and led us towards the King's Palace area of the cavern. Although it used to be open to self-guided tours, the park service closed it because people kept misbehaving and causing damage. Sigh. Now there are actually phones throughout the parts that still remain open for self-guided loops so that visitors may phone rangers to report (tattle) vandals or rule-breakers. If you know Ashley, you know she thinks these phones should be available throughout the national park system...for when people are trying to pet the wildlife.
