Day 7: Drive to Carlsbad

468 Miles

It was a long drive, and we knew we had a few others ahead of us before getting to the Grand Canyon, so I thought I’d have some fun and shave the bottom part of my goatee. The resulting facial hair left me looking like a Civil War soldier in search of a Harley. It irritated my family, so naturally, I kept it like that for the next few days.

We rarely stopped on this drive through the desert. A picture when we entered Mountain Time Zone, another when we hit the New Mexico state line. Overall, though, this was a travel day — until we reached our destination. One of the most shocking things was driving up Highway 285, exiting off I-10 near Fort Stockton, Texas. From there, through Pecos, and over the line to New Mexico, the area was — for many, many miles — filled with Halliburton vehicles, warnings of trucks entering and exiting the road, and of course, the evidence of their work: fracking. The desert landscape here was not just dotted with, but downright dominated by the machines of pumping gas and burning off the excess. When we finally arrived at our motel — the Whites City Caverns Inn in Carlsbad — there was even a sign in the lobby window mentioning that they had failed to properly take water quality tests in 2017, and that two chemicals specifically associated with fracking had not been reported, so there was no way of determining if they were present in the water that year. My guess? They were. Very much so. But I digress.

Our place was not an Omni or a Hyatt, but it was clean. the folks were nice, and the price was right. It was also the closest place to Carlsbad Caverns. (The town of Carlsbad itself is about 27 miles from the actual caverns.)

Unfortunately, there was also only one restaurant in this area which, like the gift shop and other things in the area, were open from 7 am to 7 pm. We had just enough time to get some grub before going up to the Caverns to see the bats leave the cave — especially important to us because we missed the bats at Congress Bridge in Austin due to the weather.

I’m pretty sure the entire tract of land where we stayed, and every building on it, was owned and operated by the same person or entity (hopefully not Halliburton, but who knows?). It had that kind of monopoly vibe. And though it would be easy to pick on the place for all of its quirks and mediocrity, the fact is, they charged fair prices and appeared to be trying to please visitors. Let’s face it: in a town with little more than one restaurant, one hotel, and one gift shop, they could charge Disney prices, but they didn’t. That said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how godawful that food was. 

We finished eating in time to make the seven or eight mile drive up to the parking lot of Carlsbad Caverns, where the amphitheater at the “Natural Entrance” was preparing for the bat show, where photography was prohibited. Here, a park ranger named “Ranger Rick” (yes, it’s true, and he made his own jokes), told us he’d talk and answer questions for as long as was needed until the bats decided it was time to fly. He was very informative, funny, and clear in his direction of how to act when the bats finally showed up. So he talked and answered questions, and talked some more, and then suddenly some people raised their hands and made a rotating, swirly motion in the air — our instruction for when we saw bats. Ranger Rick stopped talking, turned off his microphone, and about a hundred of us sat in silence as the sky darkened, and we watched hundreds of thousands of bats fly from the cave in search of their evening (vegetarian) meals.

Julian and I sat near the bottom of the amphitheater. I grabbed his hand when we saw the bats emerge. It was almost a religious experience, watching this ritual that probably predates the existence of Homo sapiens. Occasionally, a bat would swerve down close to us and we could feel the breeze from its wings. I understand it might be creepy to some of you, but all I can tell you is that it was amazing, and something I’ll not soon forget.

After dark, we waited for the other visitors to leave, and I attempted to take some long-exposure shots from the parking lot. Wildly unsuccessful, I was still able to enjoy the silence and the night sky with my family before we headed back to the inn for some sleep. 

Tomorrow, we explore the caves.