Down Into The Cavern

One of my favorite places is New Mexico.  I have driven through New Mexico many, many times.  And all around it a few times.

More than one of my many trips there was Carlsbad Caverns.  It is a wonder to behold that is for sure.  The first time I visited there, and we were driving towards the caverns, we weren't seeing anything.  We were following the signs, but it looked barren.  Like much of New Mexico, just a lot of land.  Mostly flat or rolling through brushy areas of nothing in between the places I love to go.

So it was kind of weird, you are near a place of wonder to behold and yet you see nothing.  It is all UNDERGROUND!  The first time I went, we used the entrance where we walked down and down and down, this is one way in, walking all the way, 79 stories, which was an amazing sight to see.  I seriously had no idea what to expect and it was thrilling.

They had it all  set up to where you, the non-spelunker, could walk down and around.  I was amazed at what I seeing.  It was beautiful, they had lights set up to illuminate the things you would normally miss because of the darkness.  At one point in the tour they turn out the lights to show you the absolute darkness.  Weird, this is a point where you really realize what the discoverers of this awe filled place had felt.

Special places and amazing huge structures with special names.  The bodies of water that were seriously deep, but such clear water that you couldn't tell how deep just by gazing into it.  And God made structures everywhere built by dripping water and sediment.  Products of more time and earth happenings than we can even imagine.  The facts of it all, of course, amazed me.

The really awe inspiring thoughts to me, came from a description of these caverns that they were a result of very traumatic things happening below the surface long, long ago in this now serene and beautiful place.  Water rushing violently to places unknown.  Rocks and gigantic pieces of earth falling, shifting and crevicing into depths still unknown to this day.  What an activity you could not witness with your own eyes and live through.

And the history we were told of how it was discovered, just, well, amazed me.  I kept trying to imagine, coming way down into the ground without all the paths and lights and safety nets.  Squeezing through openings almost too small for a person and then without warning dropping off into depths they could not see.  That part was more than I could imagine, scary.

It is definitely something to behold that is for sure.  Everyone should see it and definitely every one's children need to see it.  After a certain age, in my opinion.  There are over 300 known caverns under the New Mexico state, only 100 + are in the Carlsbad National Park.  You know that is a lot of holes underground, you wonder how stable it all is???

Just so you know, when you get to the bottom, you will be in an 8+ acre great room, a huge room that is so beautiful.  Its ceiling in some places is 20 stories high.  It is definitely awe inspiring.  At this level you will also be near the elevator which is how you go back up.  This is where it really got to me, I am more than 700 feet under the surface of the ground.  Wait, wait, let's say it differently, there is more than 700 feet of land (and holes) between me and the surface!  Gulp, realizing that and waiting to get on that elevator made me more nervous than walking down into the caverns.  And then!  Ouch, so many people got on it with me... I .... can't .... breath..... Good thing it was fast going up!!!  Seeing the sky again was a good thing.

bi's Book Blip:  OK, A good book to mention here is Nevada Barr's "Blind Descent".  Fiction. This author writes about murder mysteries in many of the different national park's in the US.  She used to be a park ranger in real life.  This book is about a cavern in the Carlsbad National Park that is not been fully spelunked yet or ready for the public.  It is a real existing cavern that is thought to be over 300 miles long.  This book, good grief, just thinking about it makes me shiver.  This book is an excellent description of the cavern explorers that go down into caves before they are all made safe and lit up for visitors.  The discovery of all the caverns, rooms and passages (in the dark) and mapping it.  Squeezing into crevices, making their way across or around huge chasms, not knowing what to expect or where they are going.  It is definitely a nail biter in itself and on top of all that, there is a murderer down there.  This is a book you won't forget. (there was another book published by a different author, I believe this past year of the same name, I haven't read it - yet.)