Road Trip 2025: Day 22

I had a much needed good night sleep and was up before the others to enjoy some quiet reading time along with a cup of coffee. I finished Of Mice and Men and liked it much more than I did thirty plus years ago.

We returned to New Mexico to visit Carlsbad Cavern National Park. It’s only about a forty-five minute drive from Guadalupe Mountains National Park. They are both close to the border and Carlsbad Cavern lies beneath the Guadalupe Mountains. Before hitting the park, we detoured into the town of Carlsbad for breakfast. We ate at Mi Casita. The food was good, nothing special, but the staff was incredibly friendly and welcoming.

To enter the caverns we needed a timed entry reservation, which luckily I was able to get. When we arrived we picked up our tickets and were told we had two choices: we could take the elevator down onto the cave or we could enter at the natural entrance and walk a mile through the cave to reach where the elevator dropped people off. Taking the entrance meant a steep descent into the cavern, a path not recommended for people with mobility issues. Since Kati’s knee has been hurting, she opted for the elevator. I asked G3 to walk with me. He grumbled, but he did accompany me. However, his exasperation with me was exasperating. He complained that he’s already seen so many caves —Wind, Jewel, Lewis and Clark, Mammoth, etc—that he didn’t need to spend the extra time walking through the cave today. Oh to be so spoiled that you neglect to enjoy the beauty around you. He got annoyed that I walked too slow, but I will probably never go back so I wanted to take it all in. And,

stopping to take pictures provoked his impatience. But the cavern demanded to be seen, not just glanced at.

In 1898, a teenager, Jim White discovered the cavern, and he immediately began exploring it. It seems every kid’s dream to discover a new world—or something other worldly—where they can spend hours lost in exploration. Since then, miles of the cavern have been explored, but new chambers are still being discovered and studied. Most recently Lechuguilla Cave was discovered in 1986. While Carlsbad has the biggest cave chamber in North America—so large that two US Capitol Buildings could fit inside—Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the largest cave system in the entire world.

The hike through Carlsbad—once we picked up Kati near the elevator—was 1.2 miles, and its confined entirely to the Big Room which is the largest chamber in North America. I have seen many caves, but Carlsbad still awed me. Not so much because of its size—although that was definitely impressive—but because of all the drip formations: Stalactites, stalagmites, popcorn, and drapes. Some of them were huge, but they were all pretty to look at and the Big Room was filled with them. It was like entering nature’s art gallery.

While a crowd entered the cave with me and G3, by the time we reached Kati and covered half the loop in the Big Room, there were moments we felt as if we were the only ones in the cave. It was glorious. I loved the solitude.

After exploring the cavern, we returned briefly to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Except for the two visitor centers and the campground, the park is not accessible by car. To see the park, you have to hike. We are camping in the south, but this morning the ranger told us this area was made a National Park because of the McKittrick Canyon in the north. Apparently, the park has the largest exposed fossil reef in the world. With all these biggest and bests and largest is it any wonder that the American ego is so big. Anyway, the ranger recommended that we visit the canyon, and since I hate to leave anything unexplored, I wanted to go for a hike. I was the only one with an itch to do so, so while Kati and G3 rested and read, I hiked. I didn’t go far or hit any of the noted destinations because I didn’t want my family to get bored waiting for me. I just walked for a half hour and then turned around. I figured something super short was still better than nothing. And after sitting in the car for so long my back and legs appreciated the exercise. The mountains were pretty, but not as stunning as Rocky Mountain National Park. As for the canyon, it was kind of blah after the other canyon’s I’ve seen on this trip.

We ended the evening back at Carlsbad Cavern for the bat ranger program. At the last count, roughly 425,000 Brazilian free-tailed bats (also known as Mexican free-tailed bats) live in Carlsbad Cavern for half of the year. The other half they live down in Latin America. They are rather small, weighing only about 15 grams, and they have a wingspan span of 11 inches. Despite their small size, they can fly up to 93 miles an hour. In the wild, they live between five and ten years. We gathered at the amphitheater next to the entrance of the cave to listen to the ranger talk about the bats. He talked until they started to emerge—one at a time, then a few more, until there was one swarm after another. It was mesmerizing and calming to watch them exit in waves and fly off to find food.

We are now back at the campsite. G3 and Kati are in their tents but I am outside with the stars and the cicadas. It’s cool enough to need a sweatshirt and the moon is exceptionally bright. I am tired but the night feels too perfect to retreat into my sleeping bag.