Carlsbad Caverns National Park: A Natural Wonder 700 feet beneath the earth!(Click to enlarge)
First stop in New Mexico: Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The cavern is the second largest cave chamber in the world, where the Big Room alone is 4,000 feet in length, 625 feet wide, and 300 feet deep. In other words, it's really, really big! My photos didn't turn out the best, because I forgot to take my tripod in with me. Despite the poor pictures, I can tell you it was quite impressive.
Between Carlsbad and Santa Fe, we saw a couple of interesting sights including the grave of Smokey the Bear and the Valley of Fires--a geologic wonder full of solidified lava flows from lava vents in the valley floor. See the slideshow for more pictures from the caverns and to see these other sights along the way.
Photo copyright: Janet Kincaid, 04/09
6 comments:
have always wanted to go to Carlsbad Cavern, I've been to others but not the Granddaddy of them all. Beautiful, I am getting envious of your trip.
I hope you don't mind but I'll leave one comment here about all the latest installments.
Love the spooky looking caves.
95 and 93 years?! You come from good stock, you'll be around for years and years!
Liked the long road shot, really good.
Carry on enjoying your trip and keep us posted :)
The caverns shot is incredible. Wow. I'm having trouble getting past the grave of Smokey the Bear. Really? For the love.
V
Cele: The photos don't do it justice. You really have to see it in person and I'd certainly recommend doing so.
Marley: Multiple comments are welcome! I'll multi-reply in return. ;-)
The caves were kind of dark and spooky.
My maternal grandfather lived to be 86, I think, so I'll probably live to be quite old, too. Not sure how I feel about that, though...
The long road shot was fun.
Now, if I could just catch up on my posts so they match where I am at the moment, that would be divine! Thanks for coming along with us.
VJ: Thanks! And yes, really, that's the grave of Smokey the Bear. After he was rescued from the Capitan Gap, he went to live at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. When he died, they flew his remains back to the Lincoln National Forest and had them buried. You see some quirky stuff on a road trip, I'm tellin' ya. :-)
Or, "Smokey Bear" as the ranger corrected us.
Maya: True. Weird, but true.
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