Pics: 1) The Natural Entrance of Carlsbad Caverns; 2) the pathway into the Natural Entrance; 3) one of the formations in the Queen's Room; 4) one of the formations in the Papoose Room. (Sorry - No pictures or videos are allowed to be taken during the times the bats leave or enter the cave.)
5-9-07-Wednesday-65044-136 -Carlsbad, NM-Partly cloudy-low +58 -high +75
Saw 1 road runner, 18 jack rabbits, 150,000 Mexican flat tail bats.
We went to the Carlsbad Caverns today, entering through the self-guided Natural Entrance trail (walking down 754 feet from the surface) and taking the King's Palace guided tour later in the day. The guided tour included (besides the King's Palace Room) the Queen's Room, the Papoose Room and the Green Lake Room. This last room is the deepest part of the cavern system at 832 feet below the surface. Since we ran out of time, we'll tour the self-guided Big Room tomorrow. (Note: Roxanne was very leary of entering any cave but this experience was pleasant enough to go back again, even when they turned all the lights off during the King's Palace tour.)
We attended the evening session at the Natural Entrance where the bats leave for the night to feed. There were approximately 150,000 bats leaving tonight, exiting the cave in a counter-clockwise manner before streaming out individually or groups that looked like swarms of mosquitoes against the evening sky. They started leaving at 7:50pm, just after the official sunset time of 7:44pm, and the last ones left about 8:30pm. One zoomed between a lady sitting about 3 or 4 feet away from us and; another zoomed close enough for us to hear a little hum as he/she went by.
On the way back to Carlsbad City, we saw (live) 15 rabbits along the road. We stayed the night at the Carlsbad RV Park on the south end of town (and is closer to the Caverns) since the KOA is another 13 miles north of the city and adds about 40 minutes more to our travel time.
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