March 7, 2023
Today we are visiting Carlsbad Cavern National Park. We have a 1:30 PM. We have one hour to start our tour of the cavern and have until closing at 4:00 PM to finish. We arrived at the Visitor’s Center and checked in. We have two options to reach the big room. The first is to take an elevator down 750 feet to the Great Room. The second option is to walk a paved trail that is 1.25 miles long and drops down the 750 feet but at a 20% grade.
We decided to have a look at the nature trail down to see if we wanted to try it. We could always walk back up an take the elevator. As we were taking the trail down to the opening we came upon a ranger and a worker. After a brief conversation we were told the trail down into the cavern was not much steeper than the one we were on. We later found out that was wrong! We arrived at the entrance and had to sit for a few minutes and listen to the safety talk by a ranger.
We descended into the earth! It seemed very long and very steep. Towards the end of the walk, my knees were feeling the burn. It was a very neat trip down. Several very cool things to see and a few descriptions. Also, along the way there were places to sit and rest. Most of the descent had handrails which made it a little easier. I think it took us about 2 hours and a little bit to finally reach Great Room. Once we arrived we found out something that we were not clear on. The decent on the Nature Trail is 1.25 miles long. Once you reach the Great Room you still have a couple of options to walk around the Great Room. The shortest was 0.4 miles and the longest was 1.25 miles. I asked the ranger if the Great Room looked similar to the area we were in. She replied that it did. My knees said No Mas! We walked about another 100 feet and rode the elevator up. We explored the gift shops and walked back to the truck.
I decided that we did all that walking and nobody was cooking, we would head to The Lucky Bull. It was suggested as a must eat place in the campground reviews. I figured we earned a good BBQ meal and a beer or two. The first thing I did was order a local cold beer. It was delicious. For dinner I ordered the Hand Battered Country Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and white gravy. As another side I ordered Dirty Chips. The chips are homemade chips topped with quest, K.A. Chili, bacon, cheddar cheese and jalapeños. They were wonderful. Nancy got a Bohemian, which is turkey and bacon on ciabatta with swiss, orange cranberry chutney, spring mix and red onion. She got a half order of Pecos Valley Poutine. Poutine is french fries topped with gravy, bacon, green chile and cheddar cheese. She enjoyed her meal also. The first beer was so good that I needed another one to finish our meal. We went back to the RV and was very tired. Tomorrow is another travel day. We will be heading back to St. David, Arizona.
