Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

We drove through south New Mexico to Carlsbad Caverns (near Texas border and fairly close to Mexico). Mainly desert with a few oil wells here and there.


In Carlsbad Caverns National Park, we walked to the Natural Entrance of the Cavern...




Spunky loves the cactus in New Mexico


The Natural Entrance


In the summer, thousands of bats fly out of the mouth of the cave to feed at sundown. Apparently its an amazing spectacle, but they migrate for the winter so we didn't see them.




Before you start looking at the pictures from inside, let me tell you, none of these pictures do the Caverns justice. The Stalagmites and Stalactites and other decorations were absolutely spectacular and the caverns themselves were HUGE!


these decorations are called the Lion's Tails






underground pool of water


Some of the images look kind of creepy, like a gothic church or something out of a horror movie.


View from top of the Caverns, in the Guadalupe Mountains in the Chihuahua Desert




After Spending a few hours walking through miles of caverns, we drove back north to Artesia, then headed west. The scenery was ever changing through New Mexico.
We call these Dr. Seuss plants...


Somewhere along I-82 as we were driving towards Las Cruces, basically in the middle of nowhere New Mexico, this guy had a shack/store where he sold locally produced jams, salsas, nuts, granola, brittles, juices and ciders, etc. and other little touristy chachkas. He also had a petting zoo with a pot belly pig, an ostrich, a llama, some goats...the usual. We got some apple cider and incredible caramel corn puffs to snack on, and took advantage of silly cardboard cut outs for a photo op...


Deer crossing...


We drove through White Sands National Monument but the sun sets and it gets dark so early, we didn't see any of it.
Sunset...use your imagination because the pictures really don't even come close to how beautiful it was...