From one extreme to the other

The Carlsbad Caverns are amazing. Jocelyn, please thank your parents for us. Let them know we just missed celebrating our anniversary there. But we loved the caverns anyway.

They are just enormous. There are two ways down, there is a path down the natural entrance, which we took, and the walk to the bottom took an hour and fifteen minutes. Or the second way down, is an elevator which stops 750ft beneath the surface. But these caverns would not bother most claustrophobes. They are simply too big and spacious. In many places the ceiling is over 100ft over your head. Walking the whole length of the tour took us three hours. The caves are minimally lit and only in neutral colors, so you see it as it should be. It’s very very beautiful and eerie. It constantly challenges your senses. It feels as though you are walking on another world because it is so fantasy-like.

At lunch time we left the caverns and headed south on the US 180 across the Texas border. We skirted the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and descended from the mountains to the flat plains of the Sierra Diablo Desert.

For the next two hours we drove south on Texas Highway 54 and didn’t see a soul. It is some of the most stark, empty landscape that we have seen yet. The sense of light and space is so great, that it was hard to comprehend after the Carlsbad Caverns. It is majestic country and we were a bit sad to rejoin the I10.

Rejoining the I10 at Van Horn we continued east to the town of Fort Stockton, where we checked into an RV park for the night. Sleeping in the van again felt like the thing to do. Freedom doesn’t feel the same in a motel room.

We parked the van next to the picnic tables and ate a pizza as we watched the sun go down over the desert.

Funny Facts:
1. Highest speed limit observed yet: 80MPH (133KPH) I10 across Texas
2. Miles driven so far: 2700
3. Roundabouts so far on the trip: 1
4. Speed Bumps so far on the trip: 0
5. Pot holes so far on the trip: 1
6. Most bizarre road kill so far on the trip: Black Bear I10 in Texas

Mark and Pia in Texas, the Sierra Diablo is behind us

The view from only about 1/4 of the way down, that opening is about 10m x 20m

The coloured soda straws (the thin staws hanging down)

How big can one cavern be (and this isn't the biggest)

Three huge stalagmites all in a row

They call these formations drapery

A view from the natural entrance