An early start from El Paso and a three hour drive to Carlsbad Caverns today. The wind was not quite as strong early, but bared its teeth not far into the trip, and we could see great clouds of dust again in the distance.
The drive to Carlsbad Caverns was spectacular in many places. The desert scrub gave way to grass trees and then prairie grasses. As we started to climb the mountians, the vistas were exceptional - mile after mile of beautiful cliffs and mountians, though the wind in the mountain areas was a bit scary at times. Brian did a great job of ploughing through 50+ mph cross winds that buffeted the RV and got the awnings on the slideouts flapping. It even caused the skylight in the bathroom to pop up, and we couldn' get it closed again, so travelled with it open, half expecting the wind to rip it off at any stage, but it held firm.
Carlsbad Caverns was a delight. The descent underground to 750ft was either by walk in or by lift - it was no contest really. The ride down took about 1 minute, and when we reached the bottom and entered the caves we were spellbound by the beauty of nature. It is no wonder that theses caves are referred to as the eighth wonder of the world, and are a US National Treasure.
The pathways through the caves are all bitumen, so there is no sloshing through mud, and the sheer volume of the caverns meant that claustrophobia was not an issue. The features are well lit, and there are information panels at every turn. The whole trip throught the caverns took over an hour to complete at a pretty steady pace - there are literally kilometres of caves to explore. We saw stalegtites, stalegmites, columns, shawls and other things we can't remember the names of. It was really like a fairyland and we half expected to see fairies or elves (or something like that) at the next turn. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and we would recommend the caves to anyone visiting the US. It is right up there with the best we have seen in this country, and they deserve a better reputation.
From there it was on to the Carlsbad KOA near Lake Brantley State Park. It was highly rated as an RV Park, and we would agree that the reputaton is well deserved. The staff are friendly and very obliging, and Brian has made friends with everyone. Jimmy even came over and helped us to "fix" the delinquent hatch in the bathroom. The showers are extremely clean and the park is well kept. It was a good find.
Tomorrow we start our trip towards the Texas Gulf Coast. We plan to go through a town called Hobbs, where we will take some photos - Hobbs is the nickname of one of our best mates. We intend to get to San Angelo tomorrow. Just a lazy four to five hour drive.
Cheers.
I'm tracking your progress on Google maps. Very interesting. Must be really difficult to decide where and where not to go! I'd have been tempted by Albuquerque, just for the name!! And the Bug's Bunny cartoon.......
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