Big Caves and Little Green Men: Carlsbad to Roswell, New Mexico

 

Our visit to Carlsbad, New Mexico was very relaxed.

After the hell we had the previous week, I was ready for some quite R&R. We camped out in the parking lot of the Hobbs, New Mexico Walmart after we got off Gilligan’s three hour tour of West Texas. We were slow moving the next morning and did not head to Carlsbad, New Mexico until late in the afternoon. We had not made reservations for an RV park and just decided to wing it.

The trip from Hobbs to Carlsbad is a quick trip. The scenery consist of Hazardous Waste Disposal Facilities, oil wells, and sand dunes. The ride was quiet, Tracy and I listened to a few pod casts on the way.

About five miles outside of Carlsbad Tracy started screaming and hopping in his seat. This unnerved me, and I started grabbing the arm rest and stomping the floor board. He was screaming “Something’s got me!”

When we finally pulled over and stopped Tracy pulled a bee out of his pant legs. I guess having something flying into your pants leg and biting you is a little shocking. I don’t know, it is an experience I would rather not have.

When we arrived in Carlsbad, New Mexico luck was on our side.

We found an RV park right on the Pecos River. The Pecos RV Park is small, quiet, and comfortable. The owner is onsite and he also runs a small store at the front of the park. He says he generally stays busy and that we were just lucky he had a slot open. The slot rent was $4 more than most of the other RV parks, but this RV park is shaded, has free Wi-Fi, cable, and full hook-ups. Plus, it was quiet.

 

The City of Carlsbad has a nice walking path around the river.

 

  

After dinner we took a walk along the Pecos River. The path is well lit at night which made it easy to keep from stepping in goose pooh. There were a lot of ducks and geese on the river. The guy that lives under the bridge was nice enough to tell us where to find the new hatchlings that had been born that day. We found the new hatchlings and I thought they were pretty cool since it was Mother’s Day. Hey, we meet all kinds of people on the road.

 

Doug really wanted to chase the ducks and geese, but he listens pretty well and kept his distance. I like to think it’s because he is such a good dog, but it might have been because the new mothers were hissing at him. I had forgotten how geese hiss when you get too close.

The path we took ended in the park. The city park has a course for disc golf, but we did not get to explore much because it was getting dark.

 

We set out to catch the afternoon tour of the caverns first thing in the morning.

First we decided to stop by the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM manages thousands of acres of public land in the United States. The lands are mostly open for public use. We wanted to find out more about the program and see how we could access some of the camping sites. The ranger at the Carlsbad field office explained that all we needed was to be sure we were on BLM land and that we could camp for free. She explained that some areas did charge a fee, but if we had a National Parks Pass our fee was waived or cut in half depending upon the area and amenities offered.

We bought two maps for one for the Roswell area and one for the Carlsbad area. We also got the app that we can use to make sure we are on BML land. They also have an extensive hunting program. If anyone is interested in hunting on federal land I would recommend you look into it. The visit was very informative and we enjoyed our visit with the rangers in the office.

Next, we stopped by the National Parks field office in Carlsbad to ask questions about the National Parks pass. The park ranger in the office explained the program and how it waived our fees for access to recreation areas operated by the National Parks Service, BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and the Bureau of Reclamation. So on the surface the $80 for the Annual National Parks and Federal Recreational Land Pass looks expensive, but if used it is a good investment.

Over Landers, Ahoy!

I am not really sure why, but Tracy pulled in to the little strip of stores at White’s City. Just as we got out of the car to walk around an over-lander van pulled in. I have read a few blogs about Over Landers so I am slightly familiar with the culture. Tracy was intrigued and we started talking to the couple. Their names were John and Mandi and they were just starting their journey to drive the Pan-American Highway.

They were leaving for an Over Lander meet up and then would head north to Alaska to spend some time. Once they reached the most northern point in Alaska they are planning to head south and drive the Pan-American Highway all the way to the southernmost tip of Argentina. After spending an hour talking with the couple, we wished them a happy and safe voyage and drove up to the Carlsbad Cavern National Park.

This was my third visit to Carlsbad Caverns.

On each visit I have felt weepy on the drive up the mountain. I don’t know why. Maybe it is the altitude change, or the fact that the road hangs on the side of a mountain. The scenic drive up the mountain makes me think about how special and fragile our planet is, and how we take nature for granted. I think of the television commercial from the 1970’s that showed the American Indian sitting on a horse, near a polluted stream, shedding a single tear. I know – sappy.

After we made our way up the mountain and had gotten our tickets we were set! We visited the book store and souvenir shop before our visit to the cave. I knew we would be tired after the tour.

We opted for the self-guided tour of the Big Room. We rode the elevator down. The decent is 800 feet and the elevator goes very fast. It made me feel a little queasy and Tracy’s ears popped on the ride down, but once the elevator doors opened we were both in awe. It was very quiet and cool. The temperature change is always drastic. The caverns stay at about 52°F year round. The hike in the caverns Big Room is about 2 miles and gets very steep in some parts, so my suggestion is to wear good walking shoes and take a sweater. One more tip is to make sure you go to the restroom before you head down the elevator.

Pictures just do not convey the enormity of the caverns.

We returned to the RV park for the evening.

We met a nice couple who were making a trip from California to Colorado and decided to take a side trip to see the caverns. Tracy helped them out with some trouble they were having with their tow vehicle and we all visited a little while.

They gave us a copy of the new Good Sam’s Directory. I had debated on purchasing the book, but thought that everything we needed we could find on the internet. I have to admit I was wrong and the directory came in handy when we were looking for a dump station in Roswell. So, to the couple we met in Carlsbad, New Mexico I want to say thank you very much.

The next morning we decided to travel north to Roswell, New Mexico to find an alien.

 

 

The trip from Carlsbad to Roswell is less than 100 miles and only took us and hour. Tracy was excited to make the trip because he is a SPACE FANATIC. Anything to do with space he loves. So as you can imagine, one of our regular conversations is, “If the aliens come and Tracy gets to go to space”. My answer is always the same, “I will miss you, but I am not going. Hope they don’t eat your a**.”

Roswell has been fun for both of us.

The first night we overnighted at the Walmart parking lot. I am not a fan of doing this, but it gives us a chance to buy provisions and get our bearings on where we are going. It gives us a chance to take the tow vehicle off and visit a couple of RV or camp locations without driving the motorhome. This save us on gas and keeps us from getting into a location where we could potentially get the motorhome stuck. So for those benefits I am ok with a layover at Walmart, or any other business that might let us park for a few hours.

We picked a BML location 32 miles north east of Roswell.

The site we are at is called the Haystack OHV Recreation area. This is a site set aside for Off Highway Vehicles such as dirt bikes, dune buggies, or small jeeps to use for recreation. There are trails set up for these and they are clearly marked. We have been here a week and have only seen two people use the site for less than a couple of hours. The BLM does host competitions and allow commercial competitions at the site. The competitions start in the late spring, so if you are looking for quiet time come in the early spring.

The location is a roughly developed site that has no hook ups. It’s dry camping. There is no water available unless you pack it in. There is a communal toilet (out house) available and four pavilions at the site. Luckily, we have our own toilet.

 

We were able to dump our waste tanks and fill our fresh water tanks for free at Main RV in Roswell before heading out to our campsite. We have a large fresh water tank so we were able to haul enough water to last several days.

 

We have also discovered that our solar power system is awesome.

We already knew we could run everything we needed to when we wanted and did not have to worry about power too much as long as we had some sun shine during the day. We also discovered that we can run the small AC unit in the back of the Big Lebowski. We had only tried the front AC unit which is the bigger unit. We might have overshot our power needs a little, but I guess it is better to overestimate than under estimate in this case.

The temperatures have been nice during our visit to Roswell. They have stayed in the upper 70’s during the day, but once the sun goes down Tracy and I are both looking for sweaters and pants.

We have only had our National Parks Access Pass for a week and it has almost paid for itself!

Since we have our National Parks Pass we do not have to pay the $5 daily use fee. Our campsite is free for up to 14 days. We will stay at the site for five or six days, this saves us $25. So after spending $80 on the card, we saved $40 on the fees for Carlsbad Caverns and $25 on our camping in Roswell. That means we still have $15 left to make up for the cost of our pass card.

 

We visited the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge on our first day.

The Bitter Lake site is for day use only and is so very pretty. It is hard to believe there is so much wildlife in the dessert. There is a 6.5 mile scenic drive with short trails around the park. The Ranger Station has telescopes and binoculars for use in the station along with several displays and educational information. There is a small gift shop inside with refreshments. We watched the educational film they had available before making the scenic drive.

This is a new National Wildlife Refuge so don’t forget to get your Passport America souvenir book stamped for visiting.

 

The second day on our visit to Roswell we did not do much.

Tracy went for a hike into the valley early in the morning. I opted to stay at the Big Lebowski because it was early and cold. I am not a morning person. Later in the afternoon while Tracy took a nap, I sat on the ridge for about four and a half hours and watched the valley floor for signs of life. I saw more rabbits and hares than I care to count, a hawk, a vulture, and a javalina.

 

The butterflies are also out. There are several species fluttering about and I spent the better part of two hours taking pictures of just butterflies.

The sunsets from our campsite were spectacular. We could not take our eyes off the stars at night. There are no city lights for over 30 miles so you can really see the stars at night. I feels and looks like you can just reach out and touch them. The howling of coyotes across both sides of the canyon are kind of funny to me. I think of Wylie Coyote and Road Runner when I hear them. Tracy said he felt like the coyotes were circling.

 

We found the aliens on day three!

 

 

Day three started early. We headed into town to go tour the International UFO Museum and Research Center and to tour the souvenir shops. We had fun looking at all of the displays and taking pictures. The museum is pet friendly and cost $10 per person to enter. Unless you have a great interest in UFOs and would like to see the affidavits given by the people involved I would suggest forgoing the museum and just walk around town to view the alien displays. It is a true tourist trap, but we knew that going in.



 

 

The fourth day at the BLM campsite we hiked down into the canyon.

 

 

 

 

The decent down did not take too long, but was a little treacherous. Distance is deceiving when you are up on the ridge and looking out. The view from the mountain top makes the terrain look a little rocky but level at the bottom.

Once down into the canyon it quickly becomes apparent that the terrain is not what it seems when looking into the valley from the bluff.  There are several animal trails and paths that have been made by the wildlife in addition to the OHV trails. We saw several different types of animal tracks, but luckily only found rabbits, beetles, spiders, butterflies, hawks, and one lizard.

 

 

Boss Lady has been very active and giving chase to every rabbit she sees. She has been a tired kitty during our visit.

 

 

No Internet?

The only drawback about our camping experience at the BLM Haystack site so far has been the lack of internet and cell service. We have gotten cell service for about 10 minutes every two hours. I don’t really know if you can call this a drawback, it has been a little refreshing to not hear our phones chime, chirp, and ring every time we get a text, tweet, or email.

We will head for Ruidoso and the Mescalero Apache Reservation in the next day or two. We both want to revisit the Inn of the Mountain Gods and tour the Valley of Fires National Monument.

I am working on getting all of our photos loaded to a hosting site so that interested people can view them. We have taken so many and it is hard to share them on a blog post. I will let everyone know as soon as I get them uploaded. If anyone has experience with one of the many photo sharing sites please let us know what your experience has been.

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