My earliest – and most vivid – memory of traveling from my youngest years was seeing the swarm of bats flying out of Carlsbad Caverns at sunset. Sadly, those winged-rodents migrate south each winter. It’s a real shame too, because Ayk had never seen Carlsbad Caverns before this trip. If you haven’t gathered this from my previous posts: I have done a lot – and I mean a lot - of traveling with my family when I was younger. For a memory to stick out that vividly means that it was a truly spectacular sight. I was sad that Ayk didn’t get to see them.
It was actually lucky that we even got to see the caverns at all. Late the night before, we got to a motel in Las Cruces, which is a four to five hour drive from the caverns. Initially we hoped to swing by White Sands National Monument in the morning before going to Carlsbad Caverns. When my alarm went off, I foolishly pressed “Dismiss” instead of “Snooze”. We woke up two hours later than we planned. Since the park lets the last visitors into the caverns at 2PM, we had to skip White Sands to make it to the caverns on time. We got there at 1:45PM.
The most enchanting – and the most startling – aspect about the caverns is how alive they feel. This is where it starts to feel like the set of a B-horror movie where the cave transforms into mouth of a monster: the sharp stalactites jutting from the ceiling become gnarling teeth, the dripping water is the mouth salivating for its next meal, and the soft, balmy breeze feels like the deep breath of air before the cave monster chomps down on its helpless victims. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the evidence:
Entering the mouth, err, caverns.
Fresh meat
My, what a big mouth you have!
My, what big teeth you have!
This one is actually called "Whale's Mouth". See? I'm not the only one who thinks this place is filled with giant teeth.
Haiii from the Cave of Wonders before it noms on me!
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