Yesterday morning we rose, and remembered we were parked in a truck stop, which explained the noise and activity outside our motor home. As always when it is cold there was not a great deal of enthusiasm amongst the troops to rise from our slumbers. After a hearty breakfast we pulled our big rig (we are quite long – a 35 foot motor home towing a Jeep laden with four bikes means we must be approaching 50 foot in length) out of the truck stop and hit the road North West to our next stop, Carlsbad, New Mexico.
The route across the plains of North Texas is not too interesting – flat and tedious to put it bluntly. The fields themselves are a rusty red colour and are barren this time of year. There are the remains of the cotton crops, little piles of uncollected cotton flax littering the side of the road looking like spillage from a passing beauticians van. The only other really noticeable feature is the many oil derricks dipping their heads up and down like bobbing chickens feeding on corn. All this unremarkable scenery is back-dropped by dark clouds. We are little worried as this is “Tornado Alley” and there are tornados forecast in the south of the state – hopefully the forecaster have got their predictions wrong!
We have a planned stop en route; the small town of Hobbs, New Mexico. To our delight our long trip is seemingly rewarded by the town having the most amazing sign, with 12 foot high freestanding letters spelling out the words “HOBBS NM”. Photo opportunity time!!!. We read the signs about not climbing on the sign so we simply sit on it – if we get arrested we can argue the pedantic issues of climbing versus sitting and a night in the police cell would only enhance our trip experience.Buoyed by this “Hobbs” experience we continue onto our campsite north of the town of Carlsbad. The site is a real contrast to our last one in the middle of San Antonio, this site is in the middle of the Chihuahua desert and there is no sign of life around. The area is famous for the caves and the fact that Billy the Kid also hailed from these parts. Mark was also pleased to find out John Chisum, the famous cattle rancher came from here – the film Chisum was another John Wayne classic.
Today we set out to visit the famous Carlsbad Caverns, but we had some time to kill so we went to the local wildlife State Park. Our expectations we not high but we were pleasantly surprised by this park – our first site of a Road Runner crossing our path made it all the more exciting. In the park they have set-up the three different desert environments – for those who have not visited a desert and have preconceptions on their monotony should be advised they might be barren but they have their own particular beauty. As well as showing the plant life of the desert there are animal exhibits with wolves, mountain lions, bob cats and bears.We spent more time than planned at the State Park so were now pushed for time. To try and make some time we called into a Sonic Drive In. Sonics are common down in the southern states and are drive ins rather than drive through, a subtle difference. The burgers and fries that are delivered to our car are soon consumed and we set off for the caverns. The fast food helped us
make up some time so we arrive just in time for our tour. An elevator takes us down 850 feet through the limestone mountain to where we meet our ranger guide. For the next 90 minutes we are escorted through some amazing caverns with some of the most impressive formations we have ever seen – and we have been to many caves. The chambers are vast and awe inspiring, and we pass through the Kings Palace, the Papoose Room and Queens Chamber all magnificently decorated with limestone formations. After the guided tour we decided to take the mile and half walk around the Big Room the largest single cave chamber in the Northern Hemisphere. It is outstanding and Emily, who has a fantastic way of spotting objects in formations, amused herself and us by finding various formation resembling dwarfs cuddling, sitting on top of each other and other configurations. We enjoyed it greatly and were one of the last groups to rise back to the surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment