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| Nice to see some green in Cloudcroft |
We drove to Brantley Lake today and took hwy 82 through the mountains. We drove pass Cloudcroft, looks like a quaint little town on the top of the mountain. Wish we had time to stop but this was going to be a long day so we kept going.
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| Our site overlooking the lake |
We ended up making good time, about 4 hours. This campground is pretty nice. There was a lot of sites open and all with electric and water hook ups. Most of the sites have a nice lake view. We'll be here three nights.
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April 11 Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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| Natural Entrance |
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| Switchbacks all the way down |
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is in the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. It features more than 100 caves. We entered through the Natural Entrance. A descent of about 800 feet in one mile. This route descends into the Earth following steep and narrow trails through a tall and spacious trunk passage called the Main Corridor.
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| Lots of warnings before entering |
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| Are they trying to scare us??? |
Was kind of stink when we first entered, must be bat shit. There's thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats and they leave every evening in a mass exodus at dusk feasting on insects.
Was also pretty chilly, the caverns maintain 56 degrees. Towards the middle of our hike, we both took off our jackets...we were getting a good work out and started to sweat.
The hike down was 1.25 miles, then once we got into the Big Room, it was another 1.25 miles to go all the way around. This circular route passes many large and famous features, including Bottomless Pit, Giant Dome, Rock of Ages, and Painted Grotto. Highly decorated and immense, the 8.2 acre Big Room is a must see tour.
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| Painted Grotto |
It took us over 3 hours to do the whole thing. We rode the elevator up at the end, up around 850 floors!
When we got back to the campground, we were both exhausted. I had to take some motrin and lie down for awhile.
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| Dolls Theatre |
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| Lions Tail |
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| Hall of Giants |
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Mirror Lake |
April 12
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Was overcast and windy all day. We knew it would be ugly today so planned to just hang out. Then about 4pm, we watched the storm come in. We could see very black clouds coming straight towards us. Was pretty scary. Lots of wind and rain but luckily, no hail or tornadoes. It lasted about 2 hours and on the 6pm news there were tornado warnings for the next county! Talk about a close call!
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| Rain, rain, rain |
April 13
After that storm last night, we decided to stay put for 3 more nights. We're just doing some light maintenance on the RV. We spent some time waxing another section of this beast.
We drove to Carlsbad to have lunch at Blake's Lotaburger. I guess California, Nevada, and Arizona got In-n-Out. New mexico got Blake's Lotaburger. They have 75 Lotaburgers all over the state. We kept passing these and finally decided to give it a try. Very, very good. I tried the green chile cheeseburger....excellent!
April 15 Sitting Bull Falls Recreation Area
Sitting Bull Falls sits at the end of a long remote canyon and has a series of water falls fed from springs atop the canyon. It creates a large pool of water at the base of the falls, which is 150 feet from top to bottom.
It took us about an hour to drive out to the area. It's Easter weekend so a lot of locals picnicking. The parking lot is not very big so our timing was good.
We decided to take a hike to the top of the falls, not very long but very steep. So worth it....there were two nice pools to cool off in and I could actually sit in the streams to cool off.
The water was very cold because its fed from a spring but felt real good.
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| Looking for the lost glasses |
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| Got it |
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Thinking about it   |
