Mark and I spent a large part of the day underground at Carlsbad Caverns; 830 feet underground to be precise - about 85 stories. Not for the weak of heart, or knees, the trail goes a mile down, down, down into the caves, to the edge of the Bat Cave, and the Iceberg Rock that is a single 200,000 TON boulder that fell from the cave ceiling thousands of years ago. We walked another couple miles around various cave rooms - seeing the Big Room that is 8.2 acres (largest cave in the world I understand), and the Kings Palace room that has incredible stalactites(from the top) and stalagmites (from the bottom), draperies that look like drapes but are actually stone in thin and wavey lengths, and many more types of formations.
How did this cave come to be? The cave is limestone formed from a prehistoric reef around 250 million years ago. The reef is actually the remains of sponges, algea and seashells. A few million years ago, the reef rose and water subsided with the changing earth surface. Sulfuric acid was created from the nearby oil and gas fields (seen today with oil drills and gas trapping machinery) and rainwater. The acid disolved the limestone and created large chambers that we now see as the caves. The rock formations in these caves started 500,000 years ago as water seeped from the earth's surface, evolving into calcite drops. This calcite-filled water drips from the ceiling to create the variety of formations and ponds that we saw.
We didnt get to see the 8 million or so bats. Since bats dont like people, and vice versa, the trails dont go into the bat caves. But each evening during the summer, all of these bats fly out of the cave to feed on insects...all 8 million of them!!
Food and Drink: We went to Lucy's AGAIN. Mark had to have another Lucy dinner and this time was wise enough to save half of it for lunch tommorrow. He had something with 'Loco' in the name. It included brisket, cheese, chili rellano and chicken enchiladas, and sides of guacamole, rice and beans. Whew! I had the Adam Fajita Burrito with spiced white chicken meat, white cheese, avocado and green sauce. And yes, I also saved half for lunch. We'll be munching our way into Texas tomorrow.
1 comment:
I'm about a week behind you in my reading--due to busyness of like, not lack of interest. It's so great to read your comments about places I've been and know that you're enjoying them as much as I did! Can't wait til you roll into Imperial Poke County!
jake
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