Carlsbad, New Mexico: Caverns, Hiking, and Aliens!

Carlsbad, New Mexico: Caverns, Hiking, and Aliens! Our almost six months in Texas has come to an end with our westward journey into New Mexico. The trip across west Texas was a long drive, but we enjoyed the changing scenery. We split the 500 miles up into smaller chunks by taking overnight stops at Junction and Fort Stockton, Texas before arriving at our destination of Carlsbad, New Mexico (LINK). Did I mention that we saw a huge cavern, took a great hike and went to Roswell, NM?

The drive started out with the rolling hills from Fredericksburg, then into the desert and cattle ranches, and then through some oil country. The oil industry is going through a major boom right now with much construction and activity underway. We took the long way to Carlsbad avoiding the section of 285 south of Carlsbad, due to hearing reports of the heavy truck traffic and loose gravel.

We stayed at the Carlsbad KOA that was fine, but somewhat remote at about 20 miles outside of town. It was also very dusty, but that is just this part of the country. It’s just impossible to keep the vehicles looking clean. The KOA does have their own BBQ kitchen. You can place your order and they will deliver to your site!

Carlsbad, NM

This is a new state for us. I think this is number 29, but need to double check that in my spreadsheet. The city has 26,000 people and was formed in 1888. Carlsbad is a hub for potash mining, petroleum production, and tourism. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located 20 miles southwest of the city, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park lies 54 miles southwest across the Texas border.

Since Carlsbad is located in the Chihuahuan Desert , the weather was hot by day (upper 80’s) and cool at night (mid 40’s). It is also very dry at 10-15% humidity. It really seems odd to be outside sweating, but have dry skin.

And we found the water to be extremely hard. I could barely get any soap to suds up and all the dishes were left with some scaly deposits. These are the things that you do not think about much with new areas. So, we now have a portable RV water softener on order. More on that later.

Carlsbad Caverns

This is the main reason for coming to this town. To be honest, there is not really a whole lot else in the area. From wiki: Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave, Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center.

The cave was discovered in 1898 by a teenager out exploring. The main room is the size of 16 football fields! Our tour through it lasted about an hour and a half taking the 75 floor elevator (750) down to the main room and then walking all the way around it. They even have a lunch room down there.

The photos are not that great due to the low light condition. It’s a cave remember.

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Guadalupe Mountains Hike

From our KOA park, it was an hour and a half drive to the National Park through an extremely desolate area. One road sign said the next stop for fuel was 150 miles. Hard for me to imagine. There was nothing around but sand, cacti, brush and rocks. Be sure to fill up!

After what seemed like an eternity, I made it to the trailhead of the McKittrick Canyon to Pratt Lodge hike. This five miler was very scenic through a deep desert canyon with high rocky cliffs back to a historic lodge. The hike was highly recommended by my brother-in-law Robert who recently hiked it with Mike and Alan.

During the hike, I met a couple from Roanoke Virginia, very near our old hometown. I was wearing a VT shirt that they spotted. How strange. A very small world we live in.

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Roswell New Mexico

Okay. I thought that any visit to this area we should see the Roswell Museum that is focused on the 1947 UFO Incident. Thought it might be fun. Some of it was pretty silly as to be expected.

But they had hundreds of exhibits that were thought provoking. Such as about 50 interviews with people from military, to the press, to local ranchers. Their stories were all the same. Something major happened and the government covered it up by explaining a weather balloon crash.

The air force came and collected all the evidence and took them the Wright Patterson AFB for testing. The pilots were sworn to secrecy. All for a weather balloon? Just saying…

They presented many people’s stories of being threatened if they told the truth. Many years later, their stories were documented. Perhaps they had years to get the stories all worked out. No, I still don’t believe in the story of four aliens who crash landed, but it makes you wonder…

In Roswell, we also saw an art and history museum. They had a large section devoted to Robert Goddard, the rocketry pioneer.

Easter Sunday Church Service

Our next stop is in Alamogordo, New Mexico, right next to White Sands, NM. I need to drive the dually truck and 16,000 pound coach over a 7,600 foot mountain pass with twisty switchbacks to get there. Good training run for the larger mountains coming up. Robert tells me to just gear it down and enjoy the scenery. Hmmm. I’m not in the white knuckle stage anymore, but it is not yet a barrel of monkeys either.

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