Day 33
Carlsbad, NM
Best Day Ever.
This day ran the gamut from the searing heat the of the Chihuahuan Desert (enjoyed by its panoply of succulents, but not the sweating humans) to the cool, dark wonders of Carlsbad Caverns to the thrilling flight of the Mexican free-tail bats that swarm out of the cave's entrance at sunset.
This bear's paws are wicked tired from all the hiking we did at our two main stops today:
- The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park
diverse and beautiful wildlife and vegetation of the Chihuahuan Desert, learning about the plants and animals that call the southwestern desert their home. We saw blooming cacti and diamond-back rattlesnakes that were only too happy to shake their tails at us. (while we were happy to be separated from them by three inches of glass!).
The last stop on the tour was "Succulents of the World" in a green-house hot-house that blasted off our skin when we just approached the door. (We admired that exhibit from afar!)
Then we got a quick lunch and drove the 23 miles to Carlsbad Caverns. Here are the impressive stats about the Cavern: it's the largest underground cavern in the Western Hemisphere; it's 750 feet underground; it's one of 2o World Heritage sites in the US; some folks call it the 8th Natural Wonder of the World; some folks say its the most beautiful and spectacular cavern in the world.
I can certainly see why this last claim has been made. Roughly in the shape of a cross and the size of 14 football fields, every view is breathtaking, every formation fascinating. It's like an underground cathedral of beauty and spectacle with infinite poetic turns and scientific wonders. From whatever perspective you tour this wonder -- spiritual, scientific, poetic, artistic, geological, historical, biological -- it does not disappoint. You can't help feeling a sense of awe and inspiration while visiting this unsurpassed, otherly world slice of the earth's inner space.
[Also, for the scatological-minded, there's also a fascinating pile of 45,000 year old bat guano that stands out as a highlight of the tour!]
And then, as if marveling at all the cave formations isn't enough, at the end of the day something even more spectacular happens: a half-million sparrow-sized bats fly out of the entrance to the cave at sunset to begin their nocturnal gorging of insects (they will each consume their own body weight in dinner each evening).
At sunset we waited for the bats to ascend and when they did there was a blanket of awe across the entire human audience gathered there for the spectacle. The bats swarmed out in a cylindrical spiral and then spit out across the desert in one long ebony, organic plume. The rangers told us that the bats may fly as far out as 30 miles and as far up as 10,000 feet. Who knew that there were juicy insects to eat at 9,999 feet -- but apparently there are.
We watched the symphony of bats swirling out of the cave for 30 minutes and then had to leave because the park was closing the gates at 9PM. Even as we drove away, we could still see the stream of darkness beating its palm-sized wings against the purple evening sky.
It's not a sight that we're likely to forget soon. And since we couldn't use our cameras at the site (electronic devices interfere with the bats' sonar), we'll just have to savor the memory in our minds.
Really, between the succulents, the stalactites, and the shimmering bats, this was my favorite day yet as a tourist.
State and national parks rock!
PS Like I said, we couldn't take a photo of the bats, but below is the desert at sunset that they were flying over.
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