We have been looking forward to Carlsbad Caverns since we began this trip, so today we were anxious to get over to the park. The park opens at 8:30 and we were there before 9:00.   We would have been there a little earlier, but the weather report said it would be a little cooler with some wind in the morning. Some wind- what an understatement! It must have been 30 to 40 knot winds, almost continuous. The kind where you have to lean the bike over sideways just to keep going down the road straight. Luckily, we were only about 18 miles from the park entrance so we just took it slow. The Visitors Center is 7 miles through a canyon and up a mountain from the road. The canyon part was great, as it was a break from the wind. But as we reached the top of the mountain, the wind really got rough and it was all we could do to keep the bike upright for that last mile!
     Luckily, since we were caving all day, it didn't really matter what was going on outside . We had booked the Kings Palace guided tour online for 10:30, so we had time to kill between 9 and 10:30. We talked to the ranger yesterday, and he recommended that we take the Natural Entrance Self-Guided Tour, which should take about an hour, at 9:00. It ends in the Big Room below at the elevators, where we could meet our tourguide for the King's Palace tour. After King's Palace, there was one more self-guided tour called the Big Room Self-Guided Tour that would take about an hour and a half. That should pretty much take most of the day, and we didn't even need to come up to the surface.
     The Natural Entrance tour is just what it sounds like. You start at a trail on the surface through the big traditional cave opening - the one the bats fly out of later, and you walk down through the cave to the center room 754 ft below the surface. You could also take the elevator down the 754 ft and walk out the Natural Entrance, but that would mean hiking up 874 ft. Hiking down 874 feet had much more appeal . As we entered the cave, you could see some bats hanging from the ceiling, and there were a bunch of sparrows that were flying in and out of the opening. We though the sparrows were bats at first, but the ranger explained that during the day, all the bats were asleep.
     The first thing you notice as you enter this cave is how BIG everything is! No concerns about bumping your head in this cave. The rooms are HUGE! It's also a very wet and active cave, so everywhere we looked there were rock formations. There weren't very many people in the cave today, the ranger told us later that there were less than 1000 visitors today which is apparently a low number. It's getting late in the season, and the kids are heading back to school. This is the first national park cave we have been in that had a self-guide tour and I must say it was great! We got to proceed at our own pace, took all the time we wanted for pictures, and stayed away from the crowds. Caving is also a very quiet experience. Since noise travels unbelievably far in a cave, most people converse in whispers or at least low voice .
     It was about a 1 mile walk down to the elevators, and about 10:00 we were getting a little nervous about how much further to the elevators. We had been dawdling and taking pictures all the way down, and by now we were the only people we could see. Just then, a ranger passed by, and she said we were only about 10 minutes away, and we would make it easily. She asked us how we liked the cave so far, and told us that we should come back next year as they were upgrading all the lighting throughout the cave this winter. As with most caves we had seen, they are making the transition over from incandescent lighting to LED lighting. LED's generate less heat, and last much longer than incandescent. The heat from the incandescent bulbs promotes algae growth, so they tend to limit the lighting. With LED lights, there is much less heat, so they can do a better job of lighting the cave. Carlsbad Caverns is certainly well lit enough to get around, but we did have some trouble getting enough light to take good pictures .
     As we got to the center Big Room, where the elevators were located, we were overwhelmed by the sheer size of the chamber. It was the largest chamber we had ever seen underground. There were 4 elevators, a restaurant, a gift shop, restrooms, picnic tables, and this just occupied a small corner of this room. We tried to take some pictures, but the pictures don't really convey the enormity of the room. It was 10:15, and we didn't see our tour, so we rode the elevator up to the Visitors Center, met our tourguide as he was getting ready to ride the elevator down, so we just rode it back down with him.
     After a short briefing, and a few stories about the history of the cave, we headed out for the King's Palace Tour. Our tour group was pretty large, probably 50 people in all, but the cave itself is so large, it didn't seem a big deal. We just kept passing from room to room, each had a different character, each had amazing rock formations. Each room had more rock formations than some entire caves we had seen before . Some of the rooms were so big, they even had seating in a little amphitheater where we would sit down while our tourguide explained some other aspect of the cave or its geology. Even with the large group, we managed to hang near the back so we could take lots of pictures without holding everyone up.
     The King's Palace Tour took almost 2 hours from start to finish. We had walked about 1 mile in a loop, and we had gone down 80 additional ft, and came back up that 80 feet to end up back at the elevators. It was a thoroughly enjoyable tour, the rock formations were spectacular. The tourguide was young and only an intern, but he seemed to know his stuff and was able to answer all questions. At the end of the King's Palace Tour, it was after 12:30 and we had been down in the cave since 9:00 at 56 degrees. We were getting a little cold, and figured a good cup of hot coffee was just what we needed. But instead of eating in the cave, we rode the elevators back up to the surface to warm up in the Visitors Center Snack Bar .
     After coffee we headed back down in the elevator for our third tour, the Big Room Tour. This was another self-guided tour, and there were audio headsets available if we wanted - we didn't. This was another 1 mile loop that was expected to take an hour and a half. As we wandered along taking lots of pictures along the way, we were mostly alone. There were very few people on this loop, and since we weren't on a guided tour, we didn't need to stay in a group. Every once in a while, you would see a couple standing at one of the numbered markers listening to their audio tape. We called them "Stalagmites" as the would always be standing still, as if they were growing out of the floor. As we passed by, we could hear the audio track, and were glad we decided to skip the audio this time.
     By the time we finished the Big Room Tour, it was getting close to 3:00. It's difficult to adequately describe the beauty of the cave and the rock formations. We did take a lot of pictures, but even the pictures don't really do justice to the majesty of all of it . Some things you just have to experience. Of all the caves we have visited, Carlsbad Caverns is certainly the best. One other thing we did before heading back to the hotel was to track down and watch the obligatory 20 minute video that had somehow escaped us until now.
     After yesterdays fiasco with guest laundry, Jody wanted to get back so she could do laundry before all the oil workers who were staying in the hotel got back from work. Sure enough, when we got back at 4:00 the guest laundry was empty and Jody had it all to herself. We were trying to finish laundry and get a quick dinner so we could be back at Carlsbad Caverns by 7:00 for the daily exit of the bats. So it was just Subway tonight, and by 6:30 we were on our way back to Carlsbad Caverns.
     We got back to the park around 7:00, just in time to head over to the Bat Amphitheater. There is actually an amphitheater that holds a couple of hundred people, outside facing the natural entrance of the cave. We picked a good seat, and brought our camera to take some pictures . There were signs warning that there would be no electronic equipment allowed during the bat event, but surely they can't mean us! Sure enough, as the ranger got there, she said to go ahead and take all the pictures we wanted now, because at 7:15 it was all electronics off.
      At 7:15, the ranger began a little talk explaining bats in general, and these bats in particular. It turns out that every night, just before sundown, the bats exit the cave entrance in swirls to head out to hunt insects. And sure enough, at about 7:35, just in the middle of her talk, a group of bats began to head out. Everyone got silent, so as not to disturb the bats, and the bats kept coming, and coming, and coming. They were massive black cloud of bats pouring out of the entrance. We watched until about 8:00 and they were still coming out. There were far more bats than I had ever expected, but Jody had seen it on TV and knew what to expect. We asked the ranger how many bats would come out on a typical night and she said between 200,000 and 500,000 bats each night . No wonder it was so impressive!
     And no one took any pictures or videos. Once it started, we could see why electronics was not allowed. There were about 200 people there, sitting quietly observing the bats in awe. At times the bats would actually swirl over the crowd. If we had been allowed to use cameras, it would have been mayhem as everyone was jockeying for position to get the best shot. And that would have disturbed the bats. And if we disturb them enough, they might just find somewhere else to live. So we sat quietly and watched. There's plenty of YouTube videos if anyone really wants to see it.
     By the time we headed back to the hotel, it was dark. It was REALLY dark, There was very little moon, and no street lights until we got into town so there wasn't much light anywhere. We hadn't really ridden much at night on this trip. We're generally back at the hotel by dark, or we're in a city where we didn't need to ride to get around. So we'd almost forgotten how dark it can really get.
     Tomorrow we are off to Santa Fe on our way to Colorado. We'll have a brief stop in Roswell and see if we can find any space aliens along the way.

102.5 miles today
16,098.6 miles total

5.385 gallons today
385.556 gallons total