We made the drive out to Carlsbad, to see the famous caverns after the new year.
First, we stopped at Mr Nycz's house, because he has the most fun room full of trains. Noah wanted to stay there for the rest of forever.
We hiked the largest room first, it is HUGE. And, they are discovering new side passages all the time! most of the features are intact, since it wasn't discovered until much later than the 'royal' rooms which are down from the natural entrance. It's full of cool cave features, and lots of columns with weirdly tentacled stuff. The kids started calling them the hibernating brains. There's a whole story they made up, but to summarize: when the zombie apocalypse comes, those brains will the controlling the zombie hordes. Watch out!
I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but the other half of the cave had been thoroughly explored and used before the idea of conservation came into practice. The floor in this half of the cave is just dirt, no little popcorn or stalactites or whatever. The guy who discovered the cave used to bring groups down here to explore, take picture on top of the formations, whatever. Some of the high schools in the area had their proms down in this room. The contrast between the larger room, which has been conserved, is pretty striking. We took a tour through that half of the cave and enjoyed learning all about the place. Then we waited for the elevator up, hiking the natural entrance once was more than enough! We want to go back in the summer to see the bats, but it is really out in the middle of nowhere and I don't know that I want to drive that far just for bats!
First, we stopped at Mr Nycz's house, because he has the most fun room full of trains. Noah wanted to stay there for the rest of forever.
He has the four different seasons represented on the four walls of his train room. There is storage all over his house for all his trains, under the displays, etc. I can see Ben doing something like that when he retires.
And then Deanna got the rest of her driving hours
We stayed the night in roswell. Nobody was claimed by aliens.
And then we drove the rest of the way to the cave. It all just looks like desert, nobody would know it was there underground were it not for the huge numbers of bats who fly out the entrance in the summertime.
We hiked the largest room first, it is HUGE. And, they are discovering new side passages all the time! most of the features are intact, since it wasn't discovered until much later than the 'royal' rooms which are down from the natural entrance. It's full of cool cave features, and lots of columns with weirdly tentacled stuff. The kids started calling them the hibernating brains. There's a whole story they made up, but to summarize: when the zombie apocalypse comes, those brains will the controlling the zombie hordes. Watch out!
Because of my knee we took the elevator down and then walked the natural entrance path up.
 |
| natural entrance |
 |
| where all the bats fly out |
I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but the other half of the cave had been thoroughly explored and used before the idea of conservation came into practice. The floor in this half of the cave is just dirt, no little popcorn or stalactites or whatever. The guy who discovered the cave used to bring groups down here to explore, take picture on top of the formations, whatever. Some of the high schools in the area had their proms down in this room. The contrast between the larger room, which has been conserved, is pretty striking. We took a tour through that half of the cave and enjoyed learning all about the place. Then we waited for the elevator up, hiking the natural entrance once was more than enough! We want to go back in the summer to see the bats, but it is really out in the middle of nowhere and I don't know that I want to drive that far just for bats! 
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