Day 26: Carlsbad Caverns

Left Alamogordo, NM, after visiting the NM Space History Museum.  Another surprising local treasure trove of space artifacts.  With all of these rockets scattered around the West, who needs the Smithsonian?

I then headed to Carlsbad Caverns:

 I arrived too late to take the hike down from the Natural opening into the caverns, so I took the elevator down to the Big Room; somewhat disappointed.  I then realized that I probably had time to hike up the trail, so there I went, despite the sign:

Exhausted, but triumphant, because of my strong knees, I then took the elevator back down and took my time exploring the vast caverns.  Thankfully, my earlier tour of Kartchner caverns gave me the background knowledge to understand all the cave formations.

Then it was time for Bat Flight!  At sunset, hundreds of thousands of bats took wing and put on quite a show.  I was so glad to be able to see this in person, after having heard about it for years, since my undergraduate days doing bat research at BU.

Another fantastic day and I haven't even hit Texas yet!