Because we were stuck in Carlsbad, New Mexico for a couple extra days taking care of the Jeep, we ended up going to the caverns two times. The first time, on Monday, we went down the elevator and took the King's Palace tour, led by a ranger. What a great tour! It is a part of the caverns which used to be open for self-guided tours, but now is led by rangers because the public would too often break off stalactites as souvenirs. Walking along, it was easy to see the missing formations, blunted off at the bottom. The ranger also warned us not even to touch the formations because the oil on our fingers would coat the outside of the minerals and water-proof them, meaning they would stop growing forever.
During the King's Palace tour we saw a huge number of incredible and other-worldly shapes. Most caves and caverns are formed by underground running water which washes away the stone, but Carlsbad Caverns were formed by two long periods of standing acidic water. The particular geology in the area led to carbonic acid and sulfuric acid, which softened and ate away the limestone. After that, water seeping through the rocks deposited minerals, one drop at a time, for millions of years. Only five percent of the cave formations are undergoing growth today.
On Monday after our tour, we hurried back up the elevator and back to Carlsbad to have wine and dinner at The Trinity Hotel, a beautiful new inn that was built in an old bank building. The Trinity had a great restaurant, where we did the wine tasting and ate filet mignon and crab ravioli. It was Ashleigh's favorite part of the Carlsbad stay (by a lot). Nick had a flight of three Cabernet Savingnons, and Ashleigh had an assortment of dry and sweet red and white wines.
On Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and went back to the caverns. This time we walked down the natural entrance, a humongous dark hole in the ground with birds and the occasional bat swirling around. The stench of critter poop was almost overwhelming, but going down the steep and unexpectedly large natural entrance was a very different experience to taking the elevator down and walking around in the rooms below. The Natural Entrance trail is about a mile and self-guided, with only a couple rangers posted to make sure people don't walk back up the trail, which isn't allowed. It leads to the Big Room, which is another trail about a mile long and self-guided. The Big Room is the most famous and well visited part of the caverns.
We had another great time at the caverns on Tuesday, then headed back to town. We paid for the Jeep ($319), drove and picked up the trailer, and headed north out of town. I carefully watched the engine temp gauge but it never went above or below exactly the center point of the dial. I checked the coolant level, which was exactly where it should be. I checked the oil and the transmission fluid, and they were fine, aside from approaching the need for an oil change.
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