(THIS IS A LONG POST)

We have returned from 750 feet BELOW the earth!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cg1VV1Zah9T2egQb7

This is the long story of our recent road trip we took to Carlsbad New Mexico, so go grab a drink and a snack and join us on Joel's mentally unstable fueled recollection of what transpired. 

Day 1: It begins. 
With the car loaded we began the drive out I-10 West toward Fort Stockton.
Nothing really crazy happened, nice enough drive.

Stopped at Fort Stockton for some gas and gas (one of them was for the car, the other was the result of the drive thru we picked up).

Then from Fort Stockton we drove north..ish to Carlsbad.

From about Pecos TX to Carlsbad is a lot of straight flat roads through oil/gas/fracking yards and related things.
It felt like driving through one long construction companies yard, just at 55MPH.
It wasn't really a fun drive.

Even though we had been planning this trip for SIX DAMN YEARS (we were gonna go in 2019, but all got sick, 2020 everything shut down, 2022 I got a contractor job with no PTO, then I had all that job hunting time, then we were gonna go during Spring Break but realized something we wanted to see would be best in late May so here we finally are going)...uh I mean we've been planning this trip for a few months, we realized a change in our plan was probably needed on the drive up./n
Our plan was to go to Carlsbad Caverns on our 2nd day, spend the day doing that, then after go to the 'bat flight program' that they hold in the evening.
Realizing we didn't know what the weather would actually be like day 2, plus not knowing how tired we might be after a day in a huge cave (FORESHADOWING ALERT), we decided we should try to hit the Bat Flight program our first night.
But first we still needed to get to the Hotel.

After 6-7 hours of driving we arrived! 
We had some time to kill before going to the park to witness the bat flight program.
But it turns out our hotel was right next to the Pecos River Flume (in the album I hope I remembered to link somewhere in here, it's the pictures of what looks like a bridge).
A 120+ year old aqueduct that carry's water from the Pecos River OVER the Pecos River (to irrigate some farm land).

It had a lot of swallows living under it, some other critters like ducks, dragonflies, and even a tiny fish.
We also found a wild golf ball because there is a golf course that butts up to the river too.
It was a very cool looking structure and a very nice little area to walk around.
We enjoyed it.

Would you look at the time? It's time to go to the caves to see BATS!
We began our drive out to the National Park.
The road up from the freeway to the where the cave and visitors center is was GOERGOUS.
Lots of rock features, some cliffs faces, winding roads, desert vegetation everywhere.
National Parks are always amazing.
I joked many times that having a job at the caves would probably not be that shabby if that was the commute I had to make daily.

We get to the top of the place, I miss the turn for accessible parking for the outdoor amphitheater and reverse down the road a few hundred feet since there was no traffic whatsoever.
Find a place to park and we go to where the natural entrance to the cave is, and where they have the amphitheater to watch the 'bat flight.'

That's when we see it.
The entrance.
The hole.
It goes down a long way in.
How far I won't realize until tomorrow.

We find some seats on hard rock benches and get to sit for an hour or so watching more swallows that have made homes in the cave entrance.

Eventually a Ranger shows up.
He answers some questions about the park and cave a little bit before the schedule time when he will start going over what you need to know about the bats (such as be quiet, turn OFF all electronics, not silence, OFF!, etc.).
7:30PM hits, sun is setting, so he goes on about various facts about the bat flight. Things like the bats are about the size of your two thumbs together, wing span of 1 foot.
Brazilian Freetail bats. He basically will talk until someone or him see's bats start to come out of the tunnel, then at that point he will turn off his mic and we must all be quiet.

The swirling.

Lots of dark small object start whirling down toward the bottom of the hole.

Then they begin to spiral up like a bat tornado.

Really wish we could have gotten video or pictures, but understand the need to not use things that could mess with nature (new phones have IR and lasers for various things, make weird noises, and things that could mess with a bat).

They keep coming out.
Hundreds upon hundreds.
Thousands. The sound of their fluttering is amazing.
You can hear some clicks from them too.

It was one of the most magical connected with nature moments I've had in a long time.
It was truly inspiring and we were all struck with awe.

The ranger would come sit near the front looking out amongst the crowd he had to ensure everyone was being quiet.

Laura broke the silence at one point.

A bat flew within FEET of the rangers hat.
We though it was gonna hit him.
He stared at her when she mad her gasp, but it looked more like a "it's alright" kind of look, not a scorn or negative thought.

As the bats continued to pour out and the sun continued to set, they started flying closer and over the amphitheater area.
Some of them flying just a few feet above our heads.
We could see their little bodies and wings pretty good except for the speed.

We sat there watching the bats for over an hour.
They never stopped pouring out of the cave.
It got dark enough it was difficult to see them, and it seems like the amount coming out was dwindling, but they still were coming out.
I'm positive we could have easily seen a million bats.
But no Bruce Wayne.

We drove back toward the hotel, got some very late McD's to eat in the hotel because we didn't have dinner yet.
And set to sleep for tomorrow was the big day. 
Day 2: The Descent into madness.

Breakfast, drive, arrive at the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center.
The visitor center is on the other side of a small gully from where the natural entrance/amphitheater is.
It has it's own accessible parking. This is important later.

Park next to a Hot Rod (the one in the photo album).

There are about 20 others like it in the parking lot.
Some group of hot rodders are visiting the caves.
Neat!

To ensure our spot we placed a reservation online.
The reservation is only $1 and just makes it so you can buy your tickets to enter the cave at a time you'd like and not end up having to wait if there are too many visitors at that time.
 Even though it's a weekday before most summer vacations start, I got ours just in case.

Roll up to the counter to get our tickets.
$30. No prob.

Ask the lady behind the counter politely if it'd be okay for us to park in the Amphitheater accessible parking near the entrance (we have a handicap placard due to Laura's knees being the fun they've been).

This nice lady was like "Which one of you has the disability" and we explain my wife's knee's were replaced and the Ranger at the desk informs us we should have let her know ahead of time.
Turns out if you are disabled you can get a National Park Access Pass.
She refunded our $30, got my wife to sign some paper work and a fancy Park Pass card that basically gets her (and her family traveling with her) into National parks for FREE!
Hell yeah!

We clarify a few other things and away we go and make our way to the natural entrance (you can also go down into the cave via an elevator in the visitor center, but we wanted to walk in).

"And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
Absolutely NONE of the pictures I took do this wonder of a cave any justice.

The entrance into the cave is a downward path of switchbacks going hundreds of feet down.
And once you are in the cave, the path continue over to some places, and then more downward switch backs.

Along the way you are in these huge rooms with all kinds of features.
The sheer beauty and size of this cave is mind boggling.
Every kind of cave feature you could think of is covered in this walk down.

The path contains signs pointing out some features and info.

The path is 1.25 miles long.
I don't think that's true. It really seemed longer than that. My watches step counter implies it was also. 
It is mostly downhill, so if you are going slow and steady (like you recently had knee surgery), your toes get jammed in your shoes, and it requires a more effort than walking on a flat straight path.

It was not easy for me.
My legs/calves still hurt today from it.

My amazing wife.
Not even 1 year since her first knee replacement.

Knee replacement needed after YEARS of extreme knee pain the docs couldn't fix.

Still trying to recover from the surgeries and the years of being sidelined to get back to a normal strength and level of activity.

SHE FUCKING MADE THE HIKE DOWN.
SHE DID IT!

This time last year we didn't think she'd be able to do something like this.
She has worked very hard to kick ass and I am so proud of all she has accomplished and love seeing her continue to power through what life threw at her.

And there we were.
750 FEET below the surface of the earth.
In one of the largest caves in the world.

Now, there is a LOT more cave we did not see.
We were all very tired by the end of the natural entrance trail.
There is an entire trail for "The Big Room" which is an 8 acre large ROOM (about 6 football fields?).

The good news is we definitely are going to come back, take the elevator down, and explore the other 1-2 miles of cave paths they have down there.

We hopped in the elevator, exhausted but enthralled by the wonders we got to see.
Bought some things from the gift shop, loaded up on snacks, jerky, and some drinks (You could only have bottled water in the cave) for the drive back to the hotel.

And crashed.
We originally thought after the cave we could do more site seeing, but that hike wiped all of us out.
We were extremely glad we went and saw the bats fly the night before.
Added benefit of there were some thunderstorms/lightning that afternoon/evening that may have cancelled them allowing people to watch the bats fly out of the cave.
So double win!

I went out and got us some take out (McAlister's Deli if you must know), we ate it, relaxed for a bit, and we were going to sleep/lights out by 930pm.
That's how exhausted we all were.

Day 3: Well, we did see a Sitting Bull too!

Got up, breakfast, packed up the car and checked out of the Comfort Suites (btw, this one was really nice and I will be using them again when we come back!), and headed out on one last adventure.

We decided before our 7 hour drive home to hit up a spot called 'Sitting Bull Falls' outside of Carlsbad. About 1 hour drive into the desert.

And I mean into the desert.

We turned off a main highway onto a two lane road. But just before that the check engine light came on.
Uh-oh.
No weird noises, no sensor telling me anything is wrong, and last time it threw one it was for a 'coolant is low but not enough you need to stop anytime soon' error.
So I pressed on (I never said I was smart).

Turning off that onto a road. It was paved. But no center line. No edge lines.
It was just a road.
These went through cow ranch land that is a desert (which is weird) and we saw cows.
Including male cows.
Some of them sitting under bushes. We even pulled up next to one and moo'd at it.
Sitting Bull falls lives up to it's name I guess.

After a long bit we got to the park. It is one not staffed by a ticket taker, we got to pay on the honor system.
Which for us meant filling out the payment envelope with Laura's new Access pass number saving us another $10.

The falls were super pretty, and like with other nature area's, the photos do it no justice.
They are about 150 feet tall. Dumps out into some pools below in a very lush and wonderous valley/gorge/canyon thing with lots of birds, and plants, and even FISH.

Laura and Emma dipped their feet in the cold pools (which Laura said felt real good after yesterdays hike), and we just sat and enjoyed the place.

Loaded up in the minivan again, drove back to Carlsbad for some fuel (checked the coolant level it was fine), grabbed some food to eat on the road (More McAlister's Deli, it was hitting right so we went with it again), and started the drive home.

Nothing really of note.
Laura took a much needed nap.
Emma was both decent and annoying in the way kids are on a road trip.

Only thing that sucked about the drive home (besides not getting home until close to 10PM) was on the drive back between Carlsbad and Pecos, through the industrial road, a semi kicked a rock up and chipped our windshield.
Ugh.

We obviously made it home safely.
Today I already patched the crack with a kit, and cleared the check engine code (it was that random coolant one again) and it didn't come back on after running the car a bit.

Now we're all tired, basically unpacked, and have some great memories (and a shit ton of photos).

 The album I shared is only a handful of them, as seriously they do not do the place any justice.

 Carlsbad Caverns: 12/10, would recommend!

 Seriously though my wife is the epitome of an ass-kicker!
❤