Carlsbad and Roswell
So when my family lived in Texas, and I had just gone off to collage, they visited Carlsbad Caverns.... without me. Now I have a thing for caves. I love caverns and caves and the dark ancient rock formations. I think they’re amazing. So my family decided to take me back so I would get a chance to see it, and to got to Roswell at the same time, which none of us had been to. It turned out to be a trip like our one to South Dakota, so unexpectedly fun.
Packing was pretty easy since it was just a weekend trip. One travel day and two adventure days. So I packed: three shirts, two bottoms, one pair of shoes, one swimsuit, a jacket, as well as a scarf and a hat. And then the regular socks and underwear. Real simple, real easy. I made sure to bring items that could layer for the cold and I was always comfortable.
Thursday
So we left on Thursday night and drove four hours to spent the night in Las Vegas Nevada,
Friday
We didn’t spend a lot of time in Las Vegas, enough to visit some hot springs and check out the landscape where the movie Red Dawn was filmed.
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Then we drove down to Roswell, we didn’t spend a lot of time there either because we wanted to make it to Carlsbad that night and we were planning on stopping there again on our way back. So we stopped in Roswell and ate at the McDonald’s that is shaped a little like a U.F.O..
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So then on to Carlsbad, where we visited this really cool Living Desert State Park. It’s half away between a nature walk and a zoo. There are native plants and animals along the way and we got to see mountain lions, wolves, a javelina, and even... a cat. There was just a little house cat who followed us around the park while we were there. At first we thought he must just be a native to the park, owned by one of the employees by the way he knew his way around the place, but then one of the zoo keepers saw us with him and asked is if we had brought him, no not a native then. It was funny, all these cool animals and we were interested in this domestic cat. Well, it was cool to see the different ways the zoo animals responded to him. The owls were definitely the most interested parties involved.
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After that we checked into our hotel and ordered pizza. Turning in early for us.
Saturday
the next day we went to Carlsbad Caverns. It’s magnificent. we got a tour of the King’s Palace cavern and the formations there... I mean, wow. the pictures I took just don’t really do it justice. I mean we are used to this big wide world around us, open skies and vast oceans, but when you get underground, you’re not expecting vaulted ceilings and grand boulders (one’s that would seem so small on the surface of our planet) seem majestic under the surface. It’s just two phenomenal to get a look into another world just beneath the surface, that remind you that while you’ve been staring at the sky and stars above you, this place has been waiting in the bellies of the earth and there is so much more beneath your feet then you remember. So, I got to wander around the vast cave network for a few hours and it was great.
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After Carlsbad, we started the trek back home, making a stop in Roswell to check out the International UFO Museum and Research Center. It was really interesting. They’ve got a variety of displays, some of them interactive. I think it was worth going just to say you’ve been.
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It was a really great trip. I hope to maybe got back to Carlsbad when the bats are around because that would be a sight to see.
Happy Travels,
Challis Hackley
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