We hiked the Permian Reef Trail which had awesome geological markers pointing out fossilized snails, shells, sponges and microbes related to the amoeba!
It was an uphill, rocky trail, but definitely worth it! We saw lots of lizards and a little dark brown deer, luckily no rattlesnakes which we were warned against! The dried up river bed went into the distance...
Had lunch at the Cactus Cafe...hard to portray the awkward silence to this place that probably had a hay day of tourists stopping in...to emphasize the crappy feel mark ordered steak fingers...
Onward to Carlsbad Caverns! Which we actually had to travel 7 miles up the mountain to get to!
We took the natural entrance down into the largest limestone cavern in the US. It was a mile hike down into the home of half a million bats and it was awesome!
Took a guided tour into the king's palace which was definitely worth it for the ornate formations, complete darkness for a few minutes and story of how the caverns were discovered. A 16 year old cowboy in the late 1800s found and explored the caves on his own for years!! Then they were mined for bat poop until finally turned into a national monument by Calvin Coolidge who saw its picture (actually upside version) and was inspired.
Stalagtites the size of a pinky nail are 8 years old and it takes the water run off up to two years to seep into the ground to react and form sulfuric acid, the parent of all the amazing formations. Of course it is difficult to capture beauty in the dark.
On the way back "home" to our campsite on the hill we were greeted by some adorable moo-moos, the official term for cows I can't identify by breed.
For dinner some Kraft Mac and cheese, but not without excitement. As usual, the water boils at a snail's pace as I excitedly anticipate using my camping strainer. When the water finally boiled and the noodles were finally done, I topped the pot with my strainer and brought it to the water drain aka a pile of rocks, and pour. It is going fine for oh 12 seconds then I get over zealous and tilted the pot even more... And we can all guess what happens next.
Luckily I had the forethought to buy two boxes...dinner shall be eaten.
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