We moved a little further east to a campground at the entrance of Carlsbad Caverns National Park and just 30 minutes from Guadalupe Mountains National Park. There is not much out here! Our campground, a hotel, gift shop and gas station are the only things around for 20 miles in either direction.
Carlsbad Caverns is so different from many of the other national parks we have visited. As the name suggests, it is a cave system! Although not the deepest or longest cave, it is known for its vastness. After a 1 1/2 mile walk into the cave from the natural entrance, you are standing in a huge limestone chamber. 4,000 feet long by 625 feet wide. That is big enough to fit two Capitol Buildings next to each other! Thankfully, there is the option of using the elevator to take you in or out of the cave. We opted for the elevator ride out of the cave after exploring for over 3 hours. It was incredible! We did get reprimanded by a ranger for being too loud! Oops! Keeping 4 kids at a library whisper for over 3 hours is really hard!
We were also able to sign up for the ranger-led tour of the King’s Palace section of the cave, only accessible with a ranger. Do you remember learning about stalactites and stalagmites in school?? I know my science teacher taught me some way to remember the difference! We had the opportunity to learn about the history of the cave as well as all the features of the cave including those stalagmites and stalactites! I will just post a few of the hundreds of pictures I took inside the cave system!
Just down the road, and in Texas, is Guadalupe National Park. Guadalupe is a smaller lesser-known park which receives few visitors each year. In fact, it only receives 1% of the visitors that Great Smokey Mountains receives. This park is a hiking park. The main thing to do at this national park is hike the trails! So, that’s exactly what we did. On Tuesday, I took the older 3 boys for a full day of hiking. We hiked 8.5 miles through mountains, canyons and desert. Our favorite hike of the day was Devil’s Hall which leads to a rocky wash that takes hikers up to an amazing natural rock staircase and into a “hallway” formed by steep canyon walls. The wash portion of the hike required scrambling over large boulders which the boys thought was the best thing ever and left me in the back yelling, “Wait for your old Momma!” Miles quickly received the title of mountain goat as he left us all in the dust without even breaking a sweat!
On Thursday, Ken and Charlie started out early to conquer Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet. The 8.4 mile strenuous round trip hike with a 3,000 foot elevation gain took them 7 hours to complete. They came home exhausted and hungry but full of excitement about their accomplishment, stories of the people they met along the way, and incredible photos from their journey.
A few other highlights from the last two weeks:
We carried on the tradition of a heart pizza on Valentine’s Day!
We celebrated Tate’s 2nd Birthday!
We spent a week with our friends, the Sharys, in Alamogordo, New Mexico. After Carlsbad, we were headed to Lubbock, Texas. However, a few days before leaving, I checked the weather and saw that temperatures were going to be in the low teens at night. Ken was scheduled to travel and after our experience in Flagstaff, I did not want to figure out frozen tanks or pipes on my own. We were also scheduled to meet up with our friends from Ohio. So a few phone calls to campgrounds, and we decided to head back to the campground that we loved in Alamogordo near White Sands National Park. I told the boys as we were driving away that White Sands was definitely a park I wanted to visit again! I didn’t realize we would be visiting it just one week later! We had so much fun living “tarp-to-tarp” with friends. We explored White Sands, went to the Zoo, hiked, did a scenic drive, toured a pistachio farm, ate amazing BBQ, played together, shared meals together, and just did life together! It was such a fun week! At the end of the week, we sadly headed in opposite directions to continue our journeys. The Sharys to Arizona and the Proctors to Texas! We can’t wait to meet up again!
So glad to see the connection of two families traveling our country. The joy on the faces of the children is amazing. And the hikes continue to inspire us to get out and climb new peaks.