Coolest cave pictures you'll see all day

Since we didn't go out last night, we were able to get on the road by 9:30 this morning. The weather didn't look to good, but after a couple of hours, we had out run the storm, and also entered New Mexico. We got to White's City, the nearest city to Carlsbad Cavern, and bought tickets to the Cavern. Tickets are only $6/person! And this is in our country! If you're in the area, you need to stop there. Avoid the restaurant though, it's the same quality as a Pilot Gas station. Do hit the grocery store though, they have rock candy and cherry cider (although the latter I noticed after I had checked out, so I didn't buy it).

There were two ways to enter the cave: the natural entrance that took about an hour and an elevator down 800 feet that took about 3 minutes. Since there was a lot to do below the 800 foot mark, we decided to take the elevator and give ourselves the option of walking back up to the top. The employee at the elevator asked us to get rid of any food or chewing gum, because it can attact animals that can't live there, end up dying, and need to be cleaned up by the staff. Also, there was a small one foot stalagmite that he told us to touch to get it out of the way -- and please don't touch any of the structures in the cave because it would cause them to stop growing.

We exited the elevator and Lia commented that the area just looked like museums and stuff decorated to look like a cave. This was in the food court area (impressive in itself, since it was 800 feet below the surface). It quickly turned into a real cave. Oh man, what a cave! I don't want to waste your time talking about it, you should really check out the pictures. Here's a couple to entice you:




(this is a must see at original size)


(this got favorited on Flickr after less than an hour)


Carlsbad Cavern Set on Flickr

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