We were excited to get to Carlsbad. School has just ended and having the whole summer in front of us was the best feeling. I remember listening to U2 Joshua Tree all the way to the park from Lubbock. It seemed the perfect landscape for it.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting something so vast 750 (!) feet under the ground. The rooms are massive!
We did a guided tour (King's Palace). It was worth the $35 for all of us to hear more about the cave. Our tour guide was VERY into caving and spent a lot of the tour telling us about how the cave was found and explored. It really is something else. I CANNOT imagine exploring without a flashlight. At one point in the tour, he turned off the lights and it was something else. Those few minutes of darkness seemed like forever.
Nathan was chosen to demonstrate how they got to the top of the cave. Really fascinating, especially for my boys. Also, notice Nathan's hat.
Listening intently to the ranger.
That hat, his favorite hat. Nathan accidentally dropped it into the depths of the cave. We couldn't reach it and they don't let you walk down there. We all laughed bc it was a brand new hat to replace the one he had JUST lost.
We all shared two sandwiches to tide us over. They have a tiny cafe down there and they sell water and sandwiches. Joseph declared it the best ham sandwich he ever ate! ;) I think he was just hungry, poor thing.
Since we went down the elevator, we hiked out of the natural entrance of the cave. It was a steep climb but amazing. I wish we would have hiked IN the natural entrance because it's that cool and worth it. I said to Chris that if I lived here in Carlsbad, I would buy a national park pass and come here to do my exercise. It's the perfect temperature down there, and dry, and you would have the best legs in the world hiking in and out of the cave 3x a week!
A selfie in every National Park.
Love these boys. Love exploring with them and marveling at what God has made.
No comments:
Post a Comment