Guadalupe National Park, TX and Carlsbad Cavern Big Room Tour 10/5 - 10/8 and Las Cruces, NM 10/9-10

We were close to another National Park, so off we went to Guadalupe National Park for a four night stay. You can't miss Guadalupe Mountain as you approach the park.

Yup, its a National Park!!

At this park there are Park Ranger led afternoon patio talks Thursday through Sunday.  We really enjoyed the talk on snakes.  This is a real rattle snake!!  Thankfully, he is not alive!

The Evening Ranger Talk on Friday night was on the animals of Guadalupe Mountain.  Mark and I had fun with the pelts.

 

Mark hiked Guadalupe Mountain, the highest point in Texas.  Here is the view from the top!

 

 

We were so blown away by our earlier visit to Carlsbad Cavern National Park that we decided we had to go back to walk the self guided Big Room Tour.  The Big Room is the largest known natural limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere with more than 600,000 square feet of floor space.  First stop was in front of "Hall of Giants."  These are 3 massive speleothems.  The Giant Dome in the forefront is 62 feet above the trail.  Sadly, these photo really don't do the spectacular scenery justice but it does give you a taste of the amazing formations!

 

This formation sits on the ground.  It is called Fairyland.  It is made up of small elfen looking formations.

 

 

In contrast, this one looks to me like a monster!!

 

 

I think you will agree that this one is appropriately named "Lion's Tail!"

 

 

Then there is: Painted Grotto,

 

 

Dolls Theater,

 

 

and Chinese Theater!

 

 

There are pools that are fed only by dripping water!

 

 

But just when you think you have seen everything you come to this unlikely spot at the bottom level of the cavern where they actually sell food and souvenirs!!

 

 

This is just a sampling of the magnificent formations!  Now, we have come to the end of the Big Room Walking Tour.  We have not taken the elevator once so we decided not to break our record and hiked back out.  What a welcome sight when you finally come to natural light pouring into the cave!!

 

 

It's time to leave Guadalupe National Park. By the way it is the best value in campground fees. With a senior national park pass, the nightly fee was a whopping $4 a night!  Here a photo with our RV to give you an idea of the incredible views we enjoyed during our stay!

 

 

It's time to head back to what we call "winter quarters" in Casa Grande, AZ.  We needed one stop along the way so we stopped at one of our favorites: Las Cruces, NM.  We had the opportunity to add one very scenic golf course, Red Hawk, to bring us to 338 unique golf courses over our 9 1/2 years of full time RVing.

 

 

We brought the 2017 on the road adventure to an end with a celebratory stop at  another favorite: St Clair Winery.

 

 

Now its back to Arizona to finish off our 2017 full time adventure and begin the 2018 experience!!