Today I spent nearly 4 hours 850 feet below the surface of the earth in an alien world filled with dark visions and splendor. I was touring the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Words are insufficient at describing what I saw. You simply must see it yourself to really appreciate the size of these caverns and formations, Some "rooms" could house a baseball stadium. Most of the stuff is half a million years in the making.
It was very quite and you could hear and sometimes feel the water dripping almost like a light rain. In addition to the self guided tour I took a ranger guided tour and at one point he turned out the lights, the darkness was absolute. You could not see the hand in front of your face. The first explores, in the late 1800's only had a candle.
It was very strange and profound, the combination of dark and lighted formations combined to play tricks on the eyes. Sorta like watching the shapes of clouds. In the pics below find the "Wizard", the "dagger", the "chess pieces" and the "Totems"
Click on the images to see a larger view. Enjoy the snaps.
No Quarter
I left one alien landscape for another. I knew the perfect song. So I pressed the "talk" button on the steering wheel.She said: Yes
I said: Play tack No Quarter
I was now in White Sands New Mexico, it could have been Heavenly in lake Tahoe, little kids were sledding down the hill, but wait, it was 94 degrees, the kids were wearing shorts and the Yucca was blooming.
And then there was the sunset on the sand.
I needed to take a rest from all the heat so I found a friends lake to chill out in for a while :-)
Today's Progress
I'm here in Las Cruces New Mexico about 70 miles from the Arizona boarder. My 380 mile route today took me from Carlsbad north through Roswell and then back down through the Organ mountains via San Augustin Pass. At the summit I was at about ~ 8000 feet and proceed down a steep decline chasing a back car with unknown state plates at near 90 MPH. When your going fast and downhill on a freeway with no traffic and two lanes at your disposal its as close to flying a fighter jet as you can get. You really feel the G's.
I'm now sitting here at 1:30 am local finishing the days blog.
Today Progress is in green.
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