Off to New Mexico
Decided to take a family trip to New Mexico. Steve had been to Carlsbad Caverns as a kid. Robin had never been and was anxious to see the caverns. Heather and Joseph decided to join us on our spelunking adventure.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Our first stop was Guadalupe Mountains National Park. These mountains were formed from a marine reef during the Permian Era. They had lots of interesting textures where weathering and erosion had done their thing. The mountains looked somewhat out of place as they towered over the otherwise flat surface of the New Mexico desert.
Desert Flora
The flora at Guadalupe Mountains National Park had some wonderful textures.
The Big Room
The Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns covers more than 8 acres. You could fit 6.2 football fields into the room. It has lots of interesting cave features.
The caves themselves were formed by sulfuric acid eating away at the limestone deposits in the Guadalupe Mountains.
Spelunkers
Robin, Steve, Heather, and Joseph really enjoyed wandering through the big room and checking out all of the features.
Spectacular Speleothems
Decorative formations in the caves are referred to as speleothems. They form when calcium bicarbonate seeps into the cave with the groundwater, combines with the oxygen in the cave to release carbon dioxide gas, and then deposits calcite. The resulting calcite deposits grow slowly into beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and other cave features.
Hall of Giants
These three features in the Hall of Giants are the largest in the cave. They began as stalagmites, but over the years have grown so much in height and width that they have become huge domes. The largest of the three has reached the ceiling and is now a column.
Lion's Tail
The lion's tail is formed from a stalactite with a popcorn formation at the end. The popcorn forms when warm air currents in the cave cause water to seep out of the porous rock and make small lumpy deposits.
Calcite Creations
At each turn in the trail we were awed at the beauty of the features that we saw. Each formation was more spectacular than the last and the huge cave had an incredible number of formations to see.
Mother Nature
The guys were excited to find evidence that "Mother Nature" was indeed in the cave.
