Carlsbad, New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns is the most awe-inspiring, dynamic, exquisite, glorious, mysterious, and interesting thing I have ever seen, save for the faces of my two babies. Even the approach is breathtaking. We started from the desert, a panorama so vast no ordinary camera could ever capture it. Forty miles later, we turned into the gate of Carlsbad National Park and suddenly we were in a canyon on a serpentine road going up up and up for ten miles until we reached the top, where we were afforded a view of the valley, desert and mountains in the distance. We turned reluctantly from this visual gift and headed into the building that housed a gift shop, restaurant, bookstore, and the elevator to the cavern.
Once again, we had neglected to pack a picnic lunch, so we grabbed a sandwich in the restaurant, purchased a self-guided audio tour, and headed down, down, down into the Great Hall for a walk of a couple of miles with 50 different stops along the way. I took thousands of pictures, none of which came out. You can’t expect to capture the bottomless pit with a mere flashbulb. And the noble stalagmites and stalactites shun the ordinary camera. So I bought a CD from the bookstore. Which turned out to be un-copy-able. So here are some of my pictures, and some from Google, with apologies to the original photographers.
