3 National Parks in 3 Days

Take that, Alaska!

Today, we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park, just across the border in New Mexico. We're not sure either of us has ever visited a cave before. Regardless, Carlsbad Caverns is the largest known cave system in the USA so neither of us has visited something this big.

Carlsbad Caverns is in the same Guadalupe Mountains range as Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which we visited yesterday. Interestingly, the caverns are underneath one of the largest peaks. Also, the caverns are 750 feet below the parking lot and visitor center. There are two entrances into the caverns: the elevator from the visitor center or the natural entrance hike. Amy chose the elevator, but Greg cannot pass up a challenge and hiked via the natural entrance. The hike is about 1 mile long with 750 feet of descent. The switchbacks reminded Greg of the Grand Canyon. Apart from the low light, the technical difficulty level was low.

When Greg reached the Big Room at the bottom, Amy was waiting for him. The Big Room is 8.2 acres, and the walking path around the big room is 1.2 miles long! Since we visited midweek in off-peak, it was not crowded at all. This gave Greg plenty of opportunity to take photos.

Although the caverns are just 750 feet from the surface, things look completely different, like a strange planet. The official name plaques are very creative: Lion's Mane, Chandelier, etc. We used our imagination, too.

Afterwards, we returned to the campground for some rest. Greg was particularly tired due to his morning run and the hike in the caverns, so he took a rare nap. In the late afternoon, we went to walk around the campground, when another camper across from us asked about our electric vehicle. Turns out he is driving his German Opel Electric Vehicle across the USA. He asked us about pulling our trailer with an EV, and Greg asked him about charging his EV in the USA. While Greg is open to EV adventures, charging a foreign EV is a bridge too far.