Today we had reserved tickets for Slaughter Canyon Cave. I had gotten on line and found that for a little more money we could do a semi-private tour. There were 3 options, 4 hour spider cave and 3 hour lower cave where you crawl through passages on your hands and knees with headlamps and kneepads (cool!), and 2 hour slaughter canyon cave where you need headlamps and have to use a rope and on paths that have no rails. We wanted lower cave but it is limited to 15 people meaning you have to book way in advance. Slaughter Canyon Cave was 25 people and we could get in the day we wanted so we booked it. Well we started down route and it was under major construction. Suffice to say we missed route 418 and proceeded to the Texas border. We returned and finally saw route 418.
No signs, no mile markers just a crushed stone road! We noticed all the routes were like this. The drive was spectacular!
We eventually arrived at the trial head only to hike up the path and realize we were given bad information for the ticket booking people, Reserve America. They told us to meet 15 min early, we assumed that was at the arrival point. Well it really meant at the cave entrance a 35 minute hike in! So we called the cavern 800 number and spoke to Don. He was great. He got us into the next days tour and gave us free admission to the Carlsbad Caverns. Thanks Don! On our drive back we began to see jack rabbits, cotton tails, lizards, and road runners!
We entered the caverns through the natural entrance and took a 2 hour tour of the Big Room. These are the largest natural caverns in the U.S. Not to give a geography lesson but these caverns have both active and inactive formations called draperies, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, popcorn. They are made of limestone for the most part. Some are covered with Gypsum a powder white substance that coats the limestone. You will hear more about this in my next log. Here are some pics.
We came back to the motorhome and ate Spaghetti (this is starting to be our “on the road” meal). We were staying for the infamous bat flight. The bat flight happens around 7:30pm to 8:00pm. Everyone goes to an amphitheater and sits down at the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns natural entrance. The ranger comes out and explains a history of the bats in the caverns. Some of the highlights include that at one time there were millions of bats. Today they estimate 300,000 bats live in the cave. Bats feed on insects and fly by echo sounding. They do not relay on eye sight and do not glide. They must catch an updraft then flap continually otherwise they fall, kind of like the F-16 fighter jet. So we waited, then a swirl began to occur at the entrance, like a hurricane. It got bigger…and bigger until at the top of the funnel little flying things began to take off into the air in droves. I was expecting a 15 second event….it lasted 22 minutes! Check out the clip.
We then drove home and packed up so we could leave early the next morning.
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