Carlsbad Caverns National Park

We got up early this morning and braved the wind to take a walk on the Lake Loop Trail. The trail actually didn't go very near the water.

It took an hour and fifteen minutes to drive to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park Visitor Center. We picked up our tour tickets, which we fortunately had reserved, since by the time we arrived, all the tours were sold out. Then we took the elevator down 800 feet to the Big Room for a self-guided tour. The tour route around the perimeter of this extensive and awe inspiring room is about one mile and takes an hour and a half to walk--more if you stop to take pictures and admire the spectacular formations, which we did. The tour route was not very crowded with people, so it was pretty quiet, and there were times when no one else was in sight, so we had a peaceful experience of this awe-inspiring wonder.

We went back to the surface to eat lunch and check out the gift store while waiting for our 2:00 p.m. ranger-guided tour of the King's Palace. Our tour guide, Ranger Katy, was both entertaining and informative. One of the best parts of the tour was our chance to experience cave dark for several minutes. Somehow my brain just can't process the complete absence of light. It's just never that dark on the surface, even in the middle of the night at new moon. The ranger welcomed questions. When I asked how seismically active the area was and how resilient the caves are, she translated for the group, "Are there earthquakes, and do things fall?" The answer was that yes, there are earthquakes, and no, nothing falls. That's because the energy of earthquakes is transmitted through solid earth, but dissipates when it encounters the empty space of caves.

After the tour, we went to the theater for a ranger talk on the geology of the caverns and then a Discovery Channel video called "Caves of the National Parks." One of the things we asked about was whether or not the caverns are "living caves" (as Karchner Caverns are). Most of the formations are "dormant" (no longer growing)--for two reasons. One is natural: the climate is drier than it was earlier, so there's less water to carry minerals to the formations. The second is human caused: the cave atmosphere is much drier because of the elevator shaft, which brings desert air inside.

When we returned to our campsite, the wind had miraculously died down and the sun was shining. A lovely end to a satisfying day.

This evening we recorded and watched a PBS show, P.O.V., titled "Food, Inc." Another bit in the accumulating evidence that corporate food production and supply in the U.S. is terrible for the environment, people's health, and workers' human rights. We feel pretty helpless to actually locate and buy healthy food, but we're determined to try... The filmmakers assert that we get a chance to vote on food issues--three times a day.