Day 19...Carlsbad/Alamogordo

This morning we woke up pretty early to get ready for our trip to Carlsbad Cavern National Park.  It was only about 25 miles or so from our hotel, but there were rumors of crazy construction and bad tourist traffic.  Unfortunately, our day started with no coffee at hotel breakfast, but we moved along to our destination.  Traffic was pretty much non-existent with the exception of a construction vehicle we got stuck behind.  We arrived in plenty of time...only to find out the coffee maker at the park was broken...strike two with the coffee.  While we waited for our 10:00 AM tour to start, we checked out the small museum, with information about the park's formations and wildlife, and a photography exhibit featuring some Ansel Adams, which was a nice surprise.

Around 9:45, we headed to the crazy elevator that takes you 750 feet below the surface in about 60 seconds.  Finally, our park ranger guides, Joann and Kyle, arrived to give us the orientation for our tour.  It was about an hour and half, through King's Palace Cave, otherwise locked off from the general public.  The caves are unbelievable.  It's generally said to be about 56 degrees constantly in the cave, but it definitely seemed a bit colder (big change from the mid-80's we've been experiencing) and it's naturally complete darkness, however, the park installed well-placed LED lights, that actually do a great job of highlighting the formations, as opposed to feeling like some human went and ruined all of it.  Joann gave us tons of history about the discovery of the cave (by a 16 year old) and how it all came to be what we see today.  We took a ton of pictures and we even experienced total darkness twice, when our rangers turned off the lights in the chamber.  It's amazing to realize you have really never been without any light before.  Of course, this was the time Joann decided to inform us about the crickets, centipedes and beetles that live in the caves...blahhh.  They also have the same Mexican free-tail bats we saw in Austin, but they don't seem to arrive at the caves until mid-May.

After our guided tour, we returned at the entrance to the Big Room - as you would imagine, the biggest of the open spaces.  The expanse of these caves is indescribable and photos just don't do it justice...but we tried.

We were starving after our tour and happened to pass a Subway on the way back through town towards Alamogordo (our next stop), so we picked up yet another turkey sandwich to split on the road.  FYI, turkey is NOT part of the $5 Foot Long promotion in Alamogordo (but they do have guacamole.)  Our drive was about 3.5 hours and was pretty smooth, until we got to some crazy windy, narrow mountain roads.  Eventually, we made it to our Super 8 and checked in.  We relaxed a while before heading out for what we were hoping to be an authentic "New Mexican" dinner...still not quite sure what that is.  Our tripadvisor.com research lead us to La Hacienda, on the other end of town.  It looks a bit rundown, but the food and beer is cheap and pretty good, so we were happy.

Turns out, White Sands National Monument (the purpose of our stop here) was open until 10:00 PM, so we drove about 20 miles to get there after dinner to see the sunset.  This is a place that was not on our original itinerary...neither of us had ever even heard of it.  Thanks to our road trip book, we read about it on the back cover and decided to cut out El Paso and take the trip to Carlsbad and White Sands.  So far, it seems we have definitely made the right decision.  In the 45 minutes or so we spent at White Sands tonight, we were amazed.  We just went out to a short boardwalk area, where you aren't supposed to actually go onto the sand, but can read some short exhibits on the plants and animals of the desert.  We watched the sun set and the moon rise and snuck out onto the sand for a few pictures...awesome.  Can't wait to head back tomorrow for some sand "sledding."