Carlsbad Caverns

4/12 We woke up to wind and it had cooled into the 40s. It was supposed to get to the 70s for the day but the cloud cover refused to break and with the wind, it stayed in the 60s. It was still a great day. We were going to see the largest cavern in the world. And it was handicap accessible.
Carlsbad Cavern is one of 300 caverns in the limestone rock of a reef formed by a vast inland sea. Erosion and wear formed the caverns.
In 1898 16 year old cowhand Jim White found the cave entrance because he saw bats spewing out like lava from a volcano. He came back the next day and built a ladder using brush wood for rungs and fencing and rope. He eventually explored the cavern and advocated tourism and the preservation of the cave.
People used candles to wander around in the dark. I don't know how they could see anything but they came from all over the world to see and explore the caverns. They still continue to do so.

 In the parking lot, we saw this really cool 2012 Transformers Special Edition Camero. We would see him again in Roswell.

When we got to Caverns, they told me I would be taking the elevator to the big room. It drops 750 feet in just under a minute. I asked about taking the natural entrance but they said that I couldn't get from it to the Big Room through the cave.

Go Carts!!!!!

We dropped into the Big Rom with popping ears and went on a tour of the grand imagery of caverns. I can only explain it as God's hand at work. Marvelous, awesome, beautiful, are words that form to describe yet are woefully inadequate. 
Becky took lots of pictures inside the cave and some of them were dark, some blurry and some just cool. These are some of the best. 

One of the original ladders used in the exploration of the cave. They used fence wire, sometimes barbed wire to build ladders.