Carlsbad Caverns/Roswell

The park is located northeast of downtown Carlsbad and about 50 mins away from the caverns. We headed out in the morning only to find that the elevators at the caverns were out of service. This meant that we would need to walk down and back 800 ft. to get to the big rooms. The walk down was not that bad with plenty to see as we descended into the cave. Each switchback brought a new perspective of the decent and how far we were underground. The beauty of walking down thinner out the crowds that would have been there if the elevators were working. The cave in parts was so quiet you could hear yourselves breathing. The beauty was breathtaking and reminded me in many ways of walking into some of the historic Cathedrals we have visited. Photos of what we saw did not capture the grandeur or depth of field that existed. This is certainly a bucket list check off, it was spectacular.

The walk back up was a challenge, to say the least. It took us about 55 mins to make the journey up 800 ft. of vertical switchbacks. I was happy that the skiing at altitude and the walks I have been taking with Zoey paid off. I managed the walk with very little problem. Gin, on the other hand, had her hands full but made it. We headed back to the RV’s to relieve the dogs and possibly come back to see the bats fly. The day took it out of all of us and we never got the energy to head back out. To our surprise, the winds started kicking up and got worse as the night progressed. By 2 am in the morning they were howling at about 40 to 50 miles an hour. The winds were so bad that the RV was rocking, and the slide covers where making a horrible racket. By morning the winds had not died down and we finally pulled in the slides. It was going to be tuff to head to Santa Fe with these High Wind Warnings. The park worked us in for an extra day and we battened down the hatches.

We did decide to head to Roswell to visit the Alien Museum and had a great time. It was fun and worth a stop just to say we were there. The wind and dust were relentless and got into everything. The rig, our clothes, hair, Zoey and the storage areas where covered in fine dust. Little did we know that all the debris that was flying around was being sucked up into the air conditioner intakes. We would find out later on the trip as they began to run slow or not at all.