Way Underground

Carlsbad Caverns is about three hours east of El Paso.  I'd been there as a very young kid, but really couldn't remember it at all. 

Once we get beyond the City limits, the Highway 180 meanders through rangeland before you get to the Guadalupe Mountains.

"Why do I always feel like we're going to encounter cannibals when we enter one of these areas?" asked Magda.  Too many slasher films, I suppose, and not enough communing with nature.

McKittrick Canyon is supposedly the most beautiful place in Texas though it was hard to tell in February.

In springtime, the desert blossoms with color.

We arrived at the caverns a little after noon, with plenty of time to descend on foot to the King's Palace for our 2 p.m. tour.

A ranger warns people with bad knees or hips to take the elevator down.  I have both, but I was determined to walk 900 feet below ground.

Here's where you enter, and here's where all the bats fly out at sunset in the summer.  In fact, that's how some cowboy discovered the caverns.  When he saw the bats emerging from a distance, he thought they were smoke from a fire and went to investigate.

The National Park Service has done a wonderful job of lighting the stalactites and stalagmites, but it's hard to convey the strangeness of the caverns.  Doesn't this slimy wall look like the skin of the creature in Alien?

This picture of Magda reminds me of the cover art for the Rolling Stones album "Goats Head Soup."

This formation is called "Whale's Mouth."

And this one looks like a menacing ape to me.

Forget the King's Palace--the Big Room is way more awesome!

Magda said Saturday and Sunday couldn't have been more different.  "Yesterday, we were in the bright sunlight and today it's all about darkness."

My one complaint about the trip was that we didn't see any wildlife.  But I did spot these lizards in the carpeting of El Paso's International Airport when we departed.