This morning we had tickets for the Left-Hand Tunnel Tour, which is only given at 9 a.m. Monday through Friday and is limited to 15 participants. That's because it's a lantern tour to an area with no paved walkways. The handmade wooden lanterns hold candles to light the way, and no electric lights are used for most of the tour. The rangers do have strong flashlights they use to point out special features.
Ranger Christy describes the Iron Pool and surrounding formations.
Jonathan's strong flashlight provides a dramatic view of stunning formations.
The two youngest tour participants carried their smaller lanterns all the way by themselves.
After lunch we did the self-guided
Natural Entrance Tour, a 1 1/4 mile descent into the earth. We soon left the natural light of the entrance behind and entered a vast, dark, awe-inspiring underground world, a world that seems entirely alien and never intended for human beings to occupy. If J.R.R. Tolkien had seen it, he'd have recognized the realms of the dwarves of Middle Earth and of the cave trolls. It was both fantastic and a bit unsettling to be in a place so removed from human measures of time and space.
The Natural Entrance from below.
Photos can scarcely do justice to the scale and wonders of the cavern.
When we left the cavern and emerged again into sunlight, it seemed strange to think that the earth beneath our feet was not "solid ground." We drove to Carlsbad and did our laundry and grocery shopping, once again in the mundane world.
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