Carlsbad Caverns National Park

After breakfast, we made our way from Roswell toward Carlsbad Caverns. It's a haul from Albuquerque. You definitely need at least three days to make the loop. I think its probably closer to most big cities in Texas.

I only had my phone with me. Because of fungus the grows back East, you can't bring items into these caves that have been in Eastern caves. I don't know how organisms live on plastic from a camera for a year, but in any event, I was stuck with my phone for photos.

The caves were nothing like I expected. I was accustomed to caves where you are a little squished & you need to squeeze through areas. 

This cave was HUGE. Huge ceilings. Huge. Huge. Huge. Texas huge. Flushing bathrooms in the caves huge.

We decided to "hike" into the caves. The paths are paved. There are few stairs & the cave is fairly well lighted (though the twins wanted to hold my hand almost the whole way).

It look longer than expected to walk into the cave. By the time we got to the main room, it was too late to start walking out of the cave (not that the twins could have done that). 

We spent a few hours in the caves & learned a lot.

After hitting the gift shop, getting some snacks & completing the Junior Ranger program (Greta), we were ready to head back to the hotel for a swim. After dinner, we headed back to the caves.

In the summer months, the Mexican free tailed bats come out at dusk. We were lucky to be there on the first big flight of the season. 

To protect the bats, they don't allow you to take photos or video. But, if you are interested, you can see someone else's video here. We didn't see quite as many bats, but it was still pretty cool. The creepy thing is that they all emerged from the entrance that we used during our hike.