First up though was driving out of Texas. This was sort of surreal being surrounded by oil fields. It wasn't a gradual transition either. It was more like, one second there is no oil industry and the next there are derricks, salt water treatment plants, RV cities, flare fames, and other foreign looking things (I only know what some of those things are because I Googled them.). This went on for hours and hours-scrub brush and oil fields. It also seemed like everyone out there was living out of a camper, which seemed miserable to me having been in the heat in a camper for a little over a week. This scenery was definitely something we'd never seen before and would likely never see again.
After what felt like forever, we finally arrived at Carlsbad Caverns. There were only self-guided tours, but you had the option of hiking in and taking an elevator out or taking an elevator in and out. Being ever the adventurers, we chose to hike in. Really it was more time in the 50 degree weather.
Turns out we chose correctly because the descent into the cave was one of the most amazing parts of the Cavern. Let me rephrase that... the natural entrance was absolutely spectacular. It was switchback after switchback, at a 20 percent grade, into what looked like a dark mouth. As we hiked in there were swallows crisscrossing above us, chattering, and it turns out pooping. Marcus took a direct hit down his entire right side. It was getting darker, but the poop smear didn't look *that* bad so I urged him to keep trucking. Heck, even if he had been hit squarely on the head, there wasn't a lot we could do. There was no turning back and the bottom was still an hour away.
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| The cave mouth. |
Finally. We were consumed by the darkness and the cool damp air enveloped us. Relief. Jason and I had discovered the night feature in our camera app and got a little click happy. The only down side was that we had to stand perfectly still for three to ten seconds for full exposure. Not my strong suit. Also, neither of us realized how far the trail was and collectively have more pictures of the cave than all of the rest of the stops combined. Anyway, the self paced trail worked out well for us, allowing us to pass slower parties and those who insisted on using their enormous camera flash, from their hip, every 20-30 seconds, completely ruining the night vision of anybody nearby. I digress. But seriously, use a flashlight, headlamp, or something else if you can't see on the trail.
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| This is where the first adventurer to the cave descended using a lantern and a stick and wire ladder. |
By the time we finished our cave tour, Marcus was in a complete lather over the bird poop on his shirt. We had willfully ignored all the beauty and splendor of the cave for over two hours and I think it had started to wear on him. Thankfully, Carlsbad Caverns had an underground gift shop where Jason bought him a new shirt and helped him clean up his other one. When the two finally emerged from the bathroom, I said, "why did you get him a ladies shirt?" Once up the elevator, Marcus got another new shirt and I ended up with a cute shirt of my own.
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| In the cave. |
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| Sunsets are never as pretty on film as they are in real life. |
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is a little campground south of Alamagordo, NM. And though it was small, it was quite lovely. In the morning we hiked and rock scrambled a very short trail into the box canyon which boasted the only stream around. There was one pool in particular that beckoned me to it, and I obliged, slipping down the side, and barely regaining my balance before I went completely in.
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| Begrudgingly allowing me to take their photo on the pools trail. |
That afternoon we loaded into the truckster to check out nearby White Sands National Park where we looked forward to using sleds to descend the sand dunes. Jason reminded us ad nauseum that this was not regular sand, but gypsum sand. Yes, the stuff they make drywall with. Yes, we were about to climb and sled down a dune of drywall dust. I have scraped one too many ceilings for this to ever sound fun.
None the less we purchased two sleds and some wax and headed out to find a suitable dune on which to sled. At the beginning of the park, the dunes were punctuated regularly with shrubs and grasses, which was a little disappointing as we expected high white dunes. However, the further we drove into the park the less green and more white we saw. Finally, we decided on a hill and took out our sleds. As anyone who's climbed a sand dune knows, getting to the top was not fun. At all. As we took turns climbing and sledding, Lucas declared that, "you know, if you'd never sledded down a hill with snow on it, this would probably be pretty cool. But, meh." The kid wasn't wrong. It was an interesting experience and one I'm glad we've had, but snow sledding is really where it's at. On the plus slide, we now have two saucer sleds that we're dragging back to South Dakota to try out in the snow. That will be the real test.
Later that evening Jason went on his own hike up the mountain ridge. I texted after a while to see where he was and he responded, "I'm on the mountain, come take my picture." It took me a long time to find him and the pictures aren't very good. He said that the air did not cool as he climbed, which was evident by his tomato red face.
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| A little bit toasty after his hike. |
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| This is the ridge he was climbing. |
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| This is him on the ridge. It's very zoomed in. |
The next day we were headed for the grandest of National Parks, The Grand Canyon!
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