On and off trail caving at Carlsbad Caverns

[RedRoxx44]

Like a kid with a new toy, I make a pilgrimmage to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Yeah, I know, touristy. I went touron all the way with a nice hotel room almost at the caverns for three nights, and spent money I don't make as much of.
Oh well, I never said I was a brain surgeon. Good thing too. Carlsbad Caverns draws people from all over the world, I went when I was told by one of the fellows on my first caving outing that he rated as one of the top five experiences he had caving doing off trail trips in and around the caverns. They are ranger led, you pay extra and reserve your spot, but you have access to "wild" areas underground not paved or lit up. I got into four of these, Lower Cave, the Left Hand Tunnel, Slaughter Canyon Cave and my favorite, Spider Cave.
I saw Carlsbad Caverns when I was 16 years old. Can't say I remember that much of it, just that it was huge. It is that. For the touron part I walked down and in the natural entrance, supposedly it takes about an hour or so to see. Try half a day easy if you are into your photography. The NPS has certain formations lit, and it makes for a slow go with the photos. Lots of people passed me by. That was ok as it left long stretches without anybody on the little walkway. Cool. It is certainly dim in the massive cavern, and its' nice to have a flashlight handy. It was also a wonderful 56 degrees in there. I just wandered around in awe looking at the in turns beautiful, grotesque, bizarre, magical formations. The vaulting ceilings cathedral like. As you draw away from the twilight zone, the light fades away from the large opening, you feel like you are in a fairy wonderland. I spend the morning and time passed quickly.
I go on the Lower Cave tour. It's fun, a little rope work, walking backwards down steep flowstone, some ladders, some squeezes. This is the lowest part of Carlsbad caverns, with large rooms and narrow passages. Nature's work closer and more intimate, stalactites and stalagmites so thick its as if a Roman gladiator threw a bunch of knives and swords in the air and they came down fractions of miilmeters from each other.
Our Ranger gives us some history, geology and answers questions. I hang at the back and get to know 23 yo Ranger Adam, a Yalie of sarcastic wit. A caver though, with vertical skills. We see some pretty pools, the water so clear everything is seen with great detail on the bottom. That evening I stay to see the bat flight out of the cave. Thousands and thousands of mexican freetail bats take to the sky to hunt our insect friends around sunset every day in summer. I hope they eat every mosquito they can. A graceful and powerful display of group flying skills, they look so agile in the sky with the fading sun. Then they fade away.

The next day its off to Slaughter Canyon Cave, about a 45 minute drive from the Caverns, but still within the national park. A short steep hike is made to the cave entrance which is gated until the rangers get there. It is a nice view from near the rim of the Guadalupe mountains, down the large canyon. Cavers are not necessarily hikers and I crack up when I hear them talk about a two mile "death march" to some cave. In all fairness, some of the caves are accessed by some straight up cliff climbing.
Slaughter Canyon cave is older than Carlsbad Caverns, it is about 7 million years old versus Carlsbad at 4 million years of age. Slaughter Canyon cave had the distinction of being mined for bat guano, a rich fertilizer. The problem with this bat guano was that it is about a half a million years old and all the nutrients had leached out.
This cave also has some huge formations, columns, some of the biggest known anywhere. We brought very bright lights as this cave has large rooms and no artificial lighting.
Our "trail" was packed and at times slippery, bat quano. It is old so no smell. Our lights played over the results of water, mineral and evaporation and solutions.
It is amazing to me how all this time this is below us and we never knew, as humans, it grew slowly out of the light. Some formations are dormant, dry, but some are glowing and slick with the rain water that has now come thru the roof, sometimes taking centuries to get there. When we do the lights out and quiet routine, the little drops here and there sound like thunder, in the absence of any other sensation. When they turn the lights back on they highlight the "Monarch" a majestic huge column that rises unbroken floor to ceiling and thicker than any redwood. We collectively oooh and ahhh. Well deserved for this piece of stone.

I want to hike the afternoon but it is too hot and the elevation here too low. I have some places I want to go in the Guadalupes but another time. I go back to the Caverns, and go to the "Big Room". Since I dawdled so much going in the natural entrance I did not see the "Big Room". I highly recommend not missing it if you ever get here.
Its phenomenal. You have the feeling of an underground city, but far in the future. Fantastic shapes and figures, large and small scale, artistic intertwinings of symmetry and form. Again, plan at least half a day for the photo ops, and just to take in the ambience.

The next day was the Left Hand Tunnel and Spider Cave. The Left Hand tour was by candle lantern light, and narrated with a historic bent around the first discoverer of the cavern in modern times, Jim White. He was 16 years old when he stumbled upon this place, seeing the bat flight and thinking it smoke; he made this place his life's work. I can see why.
After the Left Hand, I waited around on Spider Cave. I didn't have a ticket and it was full. It is given once a week, 8 people only. Rated strenous and a true wild caving experience, with unusual formations. My luck is holding as one person cancels at the last minute. I'm in. We drive a short distance and hike again to the mouth. We climb down a short ladder. It's full gear for this one, helmet and lamps, knee and elbow pads, gloves, fanny pack at most, hiking boots. As soon as you are on the bottom it is a 50 foot belly crawl thru several tight holes to a small room. I had read the name Spider came from huge numbers of Daddy long legs encountered by the original pioneers of this cave in the 1930's. The spiders were supposedly not such an issue now. As I follow our leader, Ranger Amy, the walls seem to move. Yep, hundreds if not thousands of the harvestmen, pushing their bodies up and down in a parody of the lizards on the rocks doing push ups. Why do they do that?? For a moment I felt like Indiana Jones when he looks in and says "snakes, why does it have to be snakes---". I have no fondness for spiders but put my head down and crawl ahead like a snake on my belly. The spiders move aside, a few skitter across the back of my neck and my arms. At one point I have to turn my head sideways to fit the helmet through.
We pop out into the "auditorium" a small room that is absolutely huge compared to what we just came through. And adorned with many passages in its walls, tantatlizing us with the way. One of our party is a larger, older man and he has trouble with the crawl space. But he makes it and enthusiatically keeps pace with the group. Spider is best seen with small, flexible, athletic people. There is a lot of wiggling around, and bent over walking, some butt sliding. My fear of heights is definitely kept in check by the dark. We stem across a 32 foot deep pit, I barely pause here. Another pit is called the "Grand Canyon", keep three points of contact and stay low, as you swing you body over that deep darkness. I know it can't be that dangerous or the NPS would not allow the route be taken.

All along the way, the deep red brown walls are contrasted with stark white formations of just crazy shapes. It boggles my mind the variety of amorphic forms in the underground palaces. And palaces they are. We see a delicate maybe one inch high crystalline formation that looks like a fairy boat. Stone that looks like thin ice flows. The "medusa" room, soda straws, helectites, and some incredibly intricate aragonite crystal formations. The part of Spider we see is fairly horizontal maze like. Passages everywhere. I want to get into all of them. The rangers are firm, they allow us to slow for picture taking and ask questions, no straying from the group, for our and for the cave's safety. Some of these formations so delicate a slight brush would destroy the years work of nature, never to be seen again.
We stop at Cactus Spring, a stunning room, the water again placid and serene, not a spring but a collection of water drips. Lights out, and we hear only some steady breathing of ourselves and our neighbors. For me this time is like sensory deprivation, I remember an old movie with William Hurt, featuring a man who went psychologially out of control in "Altered States", using a sensory deprivation tank.

My photo taking has a boost in my two assistants, two young men that point their healdlamps at the formations when I request "lights, please". I jokingly name them "light one and two". Some of my pictures seem to come out; not with the zoom though, still need a tripod. Because these are "moving " tours and on a schedule tripods are not allowed although cameras no problem. Take a very small camera and pad it well for Spider cave. Also the NPS asks we not publicize the entrances to any tours, to discourage vandalism.

This style of exploring is not really my taste, with tickets and time schedules and rules and regulations, but I am glad I went. I saw things that as Ranger Amy said, few people will see in their lifetime. A magical, strange world beneath us that may be the only unexplored frontier, excepting the ocean. Cavers like to "push" passageways, to see where they go, to see if any new wonders await. Kinda like hikers, gotta go around one more corner, scale one more ridge.
Someone noted that I may have the "bug " for this. I think I certainly have. Now have more books on caving, and need to practice my knots. But soon, a return to the above ground I think. As always, I just go where nature leads me.
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You can rest when you're dead

[evenstar]

Letty, How does Carlsbad compare with Kartchner Caverns? I've read that Kartchner's a much more "Alive" cave because of all the care with air locks, misters, etc.
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When the Man waked up he said, "What is Wild Dog doing here?" And the Woman said, "His name is not Wild Dog anymore, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always. Take him with you when you go hunting."
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[doug]

I was at Carlbad the first of the July. Big fun the kids had had enough after 6hrs. so I did not get to see as much. I think that you could spend a week there and and not see all the open parts of the cave.

[RedRoxx44]

Some pics are up; I'm working on a large webshots album.

Hooli, I am not educated enough to speak on the differences of Kartchner versus Carlsbad. I am sure Kartchner benefitted from new science regarding conservation of "show" caves. And with Carlsbad's large opening, the cave has "cycled" and is mostly dormant with some active formations here and there.

I know in Spider there was a ton of humidity and the cave was warmer, but it too seemed mostly dormant. All the caves I was in had some activity.

FYI, two new caves were discovered in the Carlsbad area in the last year.
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You can rest when you're dead

[Dirt Dog]

There are fantastic sights to see in caves, but I see faces in some pictures of the formations, kind of strange I know.

[Daddee]

Well, I see you're now officially addicted to caving. You'll never get rid of the bug - you'll be at least an interested caver the rest of your life.

I'm telling you - you have to get one of your experienced caving friends to take you to the Chiricahua Crystal cave. You have to make it to the Pellican room too - absolutely amazing.
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"Only small minds want always to be right."
- Louis XIV

"...haven't you lived long enough to know that two men may honestly differ about a question and both be right?"
- Abraham Lincoln

[Arizonaheat]

Letty, glad you had an enjoyable trip. Your photo's are awesome, can't wait to see them a larger size.

[Dirt Dog]

Lets keep that on the QT.

[RedRoxx44]

Album is up at http://community.webshots.com/album/410700284zoyjtY


Yeah, I am hooked. I am going to a grotto meeting next week. Hope to get on a survey trip to a supposedly outstanding cave the group holds the lease on the land. They say I need more climbing skills tho.

Lzyboy, obtained the book you recommended. I'm intimidated but will work on that.

Sheesh, I need to get some hiking in 'fore I get out of shape. Will stay close to home but looks like the Catalinas this weekend.
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You can rest when you're dead

[desertgirl]

Absolutely amazin pictures... Thanks for sharing.
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Photos: http://www.pbase.com/desertgirl/galleries
Life is but a dream ...there is no end to what you can dream!

[Daddee]

Before you get out of shape? What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

I don't know about you, but I found caving gave me a full body work-out like I've never had before. I would say that 1 hour of caving is about the equivalent of 2 or 3 hours of hiking. Most of that is probably due to making your body move in ways and doing things that you're otherwise completely not used to doing (sort of like the difference between hiking and swimming - you can be an animal at one, but if you're not used to it, you'll suck at the other).

I'd bet that Yoga and Pilates would be great preparation for caving.
_________________
"Only small minds want always to be right."
- Louis XIV

"...haven't you lived long enough to know that two men may honestly differ about a question and both be right?"
- Abraham Lincoln