Carlsbad Caverns

I said farewell to San Antonio on 2 January and headed towards Carlsbad NM. I had planned on boondocking along the way but the weather changed and it was going to be in the 20s at night. Yikes! That’s way too cold for my thin Georgia blood. I knew I’d need to use my tank heaters so my water tanks wouldn’t freeze and I’d need electricity so I found a couple of parks that were affordable and on my route. One of the first rules of RV life is be flexible!

My first stopover was Stadium RV Park in Sonora. Like most parks in west Texas it’s not much more than a gravel parking lot.

Not very scenic but the owner was a gem. He met me on the road coming in, guided me to the campsite and made sure I was set before leaving. If you’re ever passing through here, give Mike a call and see if he can accommodate you.

I headed out the next morning for the charming little town of Pecos TX. I stayed at Tra-Park which is an Escapees RV park. Escapees is a membership program for RVers that offers discounts on camping, mail forwarding service, get togethers (rallys) and lots of other benefits. You don’t have to be a member to stay here but you get a discounted rate. Again, it was a giant gravel parking lot but there was a memorial park and a wonderful bark park for the pup nearby. Gable enjoyed walking around and even made a friend. I found out later the city has the Pecos Boot Trail. Painted by Western muralist Stylie Read, there are 18 8-foot boots around town. I would’ve loved to have seen them but time didn’t permit. I guess that means I’ll need to come back.

What's west Texas without tumbleweeds!

Veterans Memorial Park

Serafina making herself at home in the sink. "If I fits, I sits!"😸

The next day I made it to Sunset Reef Campground near Carlsbad Caverns. The campground is – you guessed it, a gravel parking lot. It doesn’t have any amenities (water, electric or sewer) but it did have picnic tables, a fire pit and vault toilet (which thankfully I didn’t need). The other campers were friendly and I had great conversations with several of them.

Sunset Reef Campground

Sunset over the Guadalupe Mountains. I love how you can see the entire outline of the moon

Fitzgerald enjoyed walking around the campground. He's finally getting the hang of the harness and leash. For awhile there he would just flop over and act like it weighed a ton and I was killing him. 😹

Now for the caverns! Oh my gosh! The caverns did not disappoint. I visited them as a child but only remember them from pictures. You can choose between the 1.25 mile hike down through the natural entrance or taking the elevator down to the Big Room and only doing the 1.25 mile hike through the caverns. I wanted to see it all so I did the 2.5 mile total natural entrance hike. Let me tell you, even though you’re going downhill it wasn’t easy. Some places were so steep I had to hold onto the handrail to keep from taking off! The knee I had replaced last year was not happy with all the jarring but I made it and it was so worth it.

Carlsbad sign, natural entrance to the caverns

Can you tell how excited I am? Last look at daylight for a few hours

I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves. The caverns are breath taking!

Every time you turn the corner there's something else that takes your breath away

The Big Room covers the surface area of six football fields and at it's highest, the ceiling is nearly 225 feet tall. You could spend all day here and not be able to take it all in.

Can you imagine being one of the first explorers and climbing down that ladder into the dark unknown?

Small pool with calcite shelfstone around it

Mirror Lake was one of my favorites

This one shimmered and looked like it was made of snow

Close up of the formation above it

Another of my favorites. These are "pool fingers". They were once gel-like strings of bacterial colonies living underwater and over time were encased in calcite and have turned to stone.

Stunning isn't it?! Pictures just don't do it justice. During the summer months the bats fly out at night and they have an amphitheater where you can watch them. If you ever get the opportunity to visit, it is a bucket list item for sure.