Location: Balmorhea State Park, Balmorhea, TX
The wind kept up through most of the night which was much appreciated. Sleeping on the top bunk in the Winniemobile feels like you are sleeping on a veranda during the dog days of summer. We rolled into Carlsbad Caverns National Park in time for the 10:00 tour, the first one of the day. We really didn't know what to expect. Our main reference point was touring Mammoth Caves a couple of years ago. Let me just say that Carlsbad Caverns was absolutely amazing! It also helped that Mandy, our Park Ranger tour guide was engaging, funny and really knowledgeable. I've seen stalagmites and stalactite before, but nothing quite this stunning. We took an elevator down, down, down close to 800 feet underground. There was an old cafeteria (no longer in use) and a concessions stand but for the most part we were just greeted with a dimly lit cave. We took the Kings Palace Tour with Mandy and were able to view several cavern rooms on a path snaking in and out, up and down, twisting and turning through this magical underground world. Every turn you were greeted with another magnificent formation all cleverly lit. We learned that Carlsbad Cavern is a limestone cave in a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea approximately 250 million years ago. We fell in love with the tale of Jim White's discovery of the cave as a 16 year old in 1898. In fact, loved it so much we bought his 1937 book - ghost written by Frank Nicholson. At one point while on the tour all the lights were turned off. We not only experienced the pitch black darkness, but Mandy then lit one small lighter to show how Jim explored 19 miles of this 30 mile cavern by himself! Blew my mind. Ned and I then took a self tour of the Big Room and were equally amazed at the clear pools, magnificent formations and the unique geometry of the stalactites and stalagmites. I tried to take several pics along the way but none of them do it any justice. We timed our tour perfectly too because we were with a really small group and had the place almost to ourselves. As we left, the parking lot was almost full and busloads were being trucked in.
Next in order was figuring out the camping situation for the night. It felt unbearably hot especially after spending several hours underground in cool temperatures. The thought of staying at another dried up desert park seemed rather bleak. We've seen West Texas before and it ain't lush. We looked at a map of our Texas State Park options, saw an oasis in the desert, laughed and said "Well we always had Balmorhea." Six years ago on our first road trip we stopped at Balmorhea State Park and loved it. Even though it's a little out of our way (Ned reminded me that we once drove 200 miles for fried chicken) and a bit "tired", the idea of swimming in clear, cool, fresh spring water was more than we could resist. As we pulled into the campground around 5ish the temperature was hovering near 100 and it was all we could do to get on our suits and dive in. Tomorrow we have a loooong drive so I'll spend some of the time describing Balmorhea with pics. For now, this cowgirl is gonna hit the hay. (And pray for a cool breezy evening).
