It was cold morning when I awoke in the morning but I had to get up and hit the road.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

I was the third vehicle in the Visitor Center parking lot at 8:05. The visitor center is undergoing renovation. The concessionaire store and cafeteria looked the same but the National Park Service side looked completely different from my last visit. I learned from my last visit that the trail into the cavern using the natural cavern entrance is closed after 2:00 p.m. The cavern can still be visited after 2:00 pm. but only by taking the elevator down to the main room. The length of the path from the natural entrance to the main room is around 2.8 miles. They open the path at 8:30 a.m. At the entrance of the cavern is an amphitheater where people can watch the bats fly in and out of the entrance when the bats are occupying part of the cavern. Other than the ability to say that I walked down into the bowels of the earth, there is not that much more to see than if you took the elevator down and walk the self-guided path in the main corridor. It is dark in the cavern so most of my pictures came out blurry. It is best to enjoy yourself and buy a postcard when you get to the surface.

The typical sight within the cavern. It is very dark with subdued spotlights on selected features.

I reached the main room of the cavern at around 9:30. I had walked the trail in the main room last time so I took the elevator back up to the surface and hit the road.