Carlsbad Caverns National Park
New Mexico (2/18/00)

This National Park was recommended to us by many friends. We are very glad for their encouragement to see this eight wonder of the world. The Park is situated in the Chihuahuan Desert of the Guadalupe Mountains. The gigantic subterranean chambers and fantastic cave formations, left the children with a new sense of awe at God's creation. They marveled at the continuing formation of extraordinary shapes as various waterborne solids are being deposited by drops of water. The cavern was formed as an ancient reef of an inland sea was worn away by rain water, made slightly acidic by air and soil, slowly dissolved the limestone. As rain water came down, water bearing hydrogen sulfide migrated up from the regions vast oil and natural gas deposits. This sulfuric acid assisted in expanding the underground chambers, as the water wore away the limestone formed by the remains of sponges, algae, seashells and calcite. Now that the torrents of water have ceased, beautiful formations of stalactites, stalagmites, and other formations have been built up by rain water slowly percolating through the soil. This water continues to pick up the necessary ingredients to deposit calcite crystals deep in the cave.

The Carlsbad Cavern is also known as the home to hundreds of thousands of Mexican Free-tail bats. The bats were wintering in Mexico and are expected home in April to give birth and raise their young pups. Spencer kept assuring Victoria that there were no bats here. It was quite all right with him that we come back to see the bats another time. We saw a short video that explained how the bats are helpful in controlling the insect population. Some bats travel as many as 200 miles each night and eat nearly their weight in insects.

We took many pictures which we hope you will enjoy on our Photo Album pages.

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