Carlsbad Caverns

A Carlsbad blog for Tues, 3/21
Today the Carlsbad Caving Winterim group was treated to several hours over 700 feet below ground in the Carlsbad Caverns, celebrating its 100th birthday this year as a national park. First, rangers Devon, Ashley, and Anthony guided us through cave rooms, including the King's and Queen's Palaces and the Big Room (the most significant single cave chamber in the United States- over six football fields!). Next, we got close to some incredible cave formations, covered many miles, and experienced a few minutes of total darkness in the King's Palace. Finally, we returned to the surface to work with some cave restoration tools invented by Mike Mansur, an amazing wealth of passion and expertise. He had students drilling holes in broken pieces, applying epoxy, and repairing formations. We capped off the day with a homemade dinner of tacos and brownies outside on a beautiful spring evening in southern New Mexico.