After a great first day at Carlsbad, I started off day 2 with a tour of a completely different cave system in the park. We all met at the visitors center, received our gear and then caravaned over to Slaughter Canyon Cave. Although the name seems to imply that there’s a gruesome story involved…no such luck. Slaughter is simply the last name of a local rancher.
The hike up to the cave is really the only thing that makes this tour difficult. It’s a steep hike but only takes about 30 minutes if you are in good shape.
The rangers let everyone hike at their own pace and then we waited for everyone else to arrive at the entrance to the cave.
When Slaughter Canyon Cave was discovered, it began to be mined for bat guano. In the first portion of the cave, many of the formations had been destroyed as a result of the mining activities. As the tour progressed deeper into the cave, we headed down a small incline that looked as if it had been dug out. The walls on either side of the path were soon over our heads. The ranger revealed to us that we were actually in the guano mine and were standing on and surrounded by ancient piles of guano. It was a little surprising because while fresh guano resembles chocolate sprinkles, the walls around us were reddish-brown. She then instructed us to look a little closer at the guano. The picture below shows our discovery…little bits of bats remained in the guano! Bats who passed away fell from their perches in the ceiling and were buried under layer upon layer of guano. In this tour the only source of light was by headlamp, so please excuse the picture quality! It was pretty frustrating to take pictures in such an amazing space and have 98% of them look horrible.
It’s hard to get a sense of scale in these pictures but this column is right around 97 feet tall.
Just like in the Lower Cave tour, there was a section where we needed to use rope. It wasn’t steep, just very slippery.
This formation is called the clansman….though if you look at it the right way, I think it looks like a little old smiling grandma.
This one is called the Christmas Tree. It was probably one of the most memorable formations of my entire visit to Carlsbad NP. In person it is stunning. It looks like it is covered in freshly fallen snow and SPARKLES as a result of gypsum crystals. Truly striking. Unfortunately, it is one of those formations that is really difficult to get a good photo of! Again, very frustrating.
The whole Christmas Tree Room was pretty spectacular. The space sparkled in all directions and it appeared as if it had been dusted with snow. If there was such a thing as a fairy cave princess, this is where she would hold court. Silly, I know, but it was such a fantastic room I couldn’t help but let my imagination run wild!
After the Christmas Tree Room, we worked our way back out of the cave and hiked back down to the cars. And finally, after 3 tours and a day and a half at the park, it was finally time to see the Big Room. I drove back to the main visitor center and instead of taking the Natural Entrance Route (I knew it would take me too long), I took the elevator 750 feet down into the cave. The name ‘Big Room’ is an understatement. The square footage of this room is right around 357,500 square feet! In this room there is a paved 1-mile trail that travels along the perimeter of the room. It is self-guided and you can travel at your own pace. The photo below is of one of my favorite spots in the entire cave…I just wanted to climb over the railing and move in!
In the lower left-hand corner of this one there are a couple of people to show some scale.
It took me around 2 hours to do the loop. Afterwards I figured it was time to see a little bit of the above ground portion of the park. It’s hard to compete with such an amazing, cave, but the scenery along the Walnut Canyon Desert Drive was pretty great as well. This drive is along a one-way dirt road that starts at the top of the plateau and eventually winds its way down to the bottom of the canyon.
Sunday I had one more tour and then I would have to begin the drive back home. My last tour of the trip was through Left Hand Tunnel. This route was probably the least scenic of the tours that I’ve done, but it was fun to explore solely by candlelight.
The most significant thing about this tour was that I earned my second Junior Ranger badge at a National Park. What an exciting day! Yes, I know this is a little dorky but it’s the Park’s way of recognizing a good deed. On the tour there was an elderly man (I guessed he was about 80) who could barely walk faster than a shuffle. He probably shouldn’t have gone on the tour, but decided to anyways. On one portion of the trail there was a rocky and slippery incline that you had to go over. It took both the ranger and me to help him safely cross this area. At the end of the tour she presented me with the badge. It turns out the guy was only 69 years old…which is a little depressing considering that my dad is 60! If anything, it was one of those moments that reminds you how important it is to maintain your health and a decent level of fitness.
And with that, it was time for me to make the 7 hr drive back to Oklahoma. It always seems like the best sunsets happen while I’m driving the opposite direction!…But I did manage to get a shot of it in the side mirror. As soon as I got home that night I jumped online and reserved my spots for the Hall of the White Giant and Spider Cave tours (the two tours I didn’t get to do on this trip). I’ll be back at the park over Memorial Day to crawl and climb my way to my heart’s content and as a bonus, get to see the famed bat flight in and out of the Natural Entrance.
alison's adventures in wonderland 