Into the Depths

The Bryson family descended into the depths this weekend. Our journey was marked by darkness, some crying, weariness, and awe. Before you get worried, our journey was simply to Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico! Dave and I have talked about taking the kids there for about a year, but we wanted to go when we could see the bats. Garrett was dying to see them fly in and out of the cave. Since they migrate in the winter, we only had the warmer months to go. This summer flew by, and we realized we were nearing the end of the "bat window" again this year. So, on a spur of the moment decision last weekend, we booked a hotel room and decided to drive south!

We left Sunday after church and drive 5 hours to lovely, scenic Carlsbad (note: heavy sarcasm), where the nicest place in town was the local Wal-Mart. However, our hotel, while stuccoed a horrible mustard-yellow and red, was clean and had a nice warm indoor pool. We drove out to the cave Sunday night to watch the bat flight, along with 1,200 other people, give or take a few hundred! We worried that we would miss the flight, because we were a few minutes late. We had no idea that the exit of the bats from the cave takes almost 30 minutes! There are THAT many bats in the cave! It was like they would never end! Garrett thought the same bats were just flying around in circles, until we pointed out the long, long line of bats flying away.

After swimming and some much needed sleep, we awoke early this morning to explore the cavern itself. We had planned on walking in the Natural Entrance, which is a steep, winding route. However, when we arrived at the cave, it was in the midst of one of the hardest rain storms I have seen in a long time! Just running from the car to the door of the Visitor's Center had us soaking wet, and Dave had dropped us right in front of the door! The Natural Entrance was closed due to lightning, so we waited the storm out for awhile before they re-opened it.
We assumed we would dry out as we walked down into the cavern, not realizing that the cave has 90% humidity. So, we were basically soaking wet for about 3 hours! But, we had a fabulous time. God has created such amazing wonders for us to enjoy! Paige was not so excited about the darkness, and so we ended up carrying her much of the way. Garrett got very tired by the end, but he was still thrilled by the whole experience!

We ended our journey by buying a "National Parks Passport", which has spaces for stamps from each of the nation's 390 national parks. We probably won't get to all of them, but we'd like to try to see as many as possible! Here's some pictures from our adventure:

Carlsbad