We left Las Cruces and decided to take the route through Alamagordo and Cloudcroft to get to the Carlsbad KOA. The mountains were beautiful, and Cloudcroft looked like a place to explore later in our Jeep. Cloudcroft was having a lumberjack show that day (go figure) and traffic was heavy. The 4,000 ft elevation change was enough of a challenge without additional pedestrians, vehicles, and motorcycles.
With temperatures forecasted to be in the mid to upper 90's our first day in the area, we decided to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The cavern felt really nice with its temperatures in the upper 50's. Granted, the 90% humidity was a bit of an adjustment after the desert air. My glasses were fogging since we were wearing masks and my hair, well, it didn't like the moisture so much either.
It took us a little over two hours to walk down the natural entrance and around the Big Room. We do recommend walking down the natural entrance as opposed to taking the elevator. As one ranger commented, you miss half the cavern by taking the elevator. However, be warned that the paved entrance trail is steep in areas and the wet surface may be a bit slippery. According to the signage, you're descending the height of the Empire State Building. You felt it in your legs for sure.
We returned to the park in the evening for the bat flight. Wow! Absolutely no photography, cell phones, cameras, etc that could scare the bats is allowed, so we don't have pictures. The bats just kept coming and coming, hundreds of thousands. About the time you'd think that was all of them, another swarm would emerge. We finally left because, despite the almost full moon, we couldn't really see them anymore. Amazing!
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| The natural entrance - where the bats emerge |
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| Entrance trail switchbacks |
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| Not a bad view up top either |
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