DAY 21: New Mexico.....Land of Enchantment.....First Day

I have to tell you that I was really looking forward to visiting New Mexico. I have never been here before. Trips in the past seemed to always skirt around this state but I had been hearing so much about it that I was locked on New Mexico as my western-most stop on this trip. New Mexico landmass-wise is the fifth (thanks Carol) largest state. But in all of that land there are only about 2,000,000 people. The state motto is "Land of Enchantment" and I have to tell you from what I saw (and there are still a lot of cool places that I would like to come back to) that is spot on.

My first stop was to the Carlsbad Caverns in the southeastern part of the state. As I drove up the winding road to the caverns I was taken aback by the fact that everywhere I looked was burnt. Yes, burnt. It seems that a week ago this whole place had been on fire as part of a brush fire that had swept the area almost all the way up to the opening of the caves. A week ago I would not have been able to go into the caves. (As an aside here, I was surprised as I traveled through Texas and here again in New Mexico how many forest and wildfires there had been and how much acreage had been burnt. I counted at least twenty burnt areas between my Texas portion and here to Carlsbad. How dry and brittle the land was).

Walking up to the information booth at the Visitor's Center, I was told that today was the "Free Day" meaning it would cost me nothing to visit the caves. After a brief conversation with the Park Ranger, I decided to take the elevator down to the lower level (750 feet down) and walk around down there. As I entered the elevator alone, the woman operating the elevator looked at me up and down and said "Why are you taking the elevator down instead of walking? The walk down is wonderful and you look like you are in pretty good shape." I mumbled something about time and blah blah blah but she persisted.  So appropriately embarrassed and knowing that she was right, I remained on the elevator when the elevator stopped at the bottom and said to her, "Take me back up. I am going to walk down" and up we went. I am so glad that I did. As I headed down to the opening to the cave I passed a couple of signs that I would love to take and use to post on hikes back in Pittsburgh.

Who knows, with a little editing I might even post the yellow one on my bedroom door.....Just saying :)

 The walk down is about a mile and a half with an elevation drop of 750 feet. Dark and paved and the sounds of swallows and bats echoing all around you. When you get to the bottom you can walk around what is called "The Big Room" which is another mile and half around the perimeter of the room with many interesting sites of columns and pools and stalactites and mites. I made the walk around the perimeter and was back to the elevators at the bottom. I stood there and waited for the elevator and the door opened and the same woman operator stood before me. "Thank you" I said, "for insisting that I walk down. It was great."

"Well get in" she replied...."Nope, I am going to walk back up, but I wanted to thank you." and with a smile and a wave to each other we both headed up, her in the elevator and me on the path. It was nice to hike in the 56 degree constant temperature and the hike back up seemed to go quickly.

Later that evening I returned for "Bat Flight" which was very cool. Every evening at dusk in the summer, thousands of bats exit the caverns in search of their dinner of bugs and such. An amphitheatre is built at the entrance to the caverns to watch. No pictures of videos are allowed as they will disorient the bats. Around 7:30 the Park Ranger comes out and greets everyone and tells them what is going to happen and a little about Carlsbad and the state park system.  And at dusk the bats begin to trickle out at first. And then in greater numbers. It was quite interesting and a fun and very different evening.

After a night in the worst hotel room of my trip, I awoke the next day to head up to Santa Fe. It was one of the places on my trip that I was looking forward to as I had heard so much about it. Loading up the jeep, I headed north out of Carlsbad. I was glad to be on my way as the forecast temperature for the next three days was 107-109 degrees.

As I drove along the road I came to the town of Roswell. My attention was taken by a sign on a building on the left, and I just had to stop. Just had to.

It was the UFO Museum and Alien Research Center.....

 I paid my five dollars and entered and began my browsing and reading. It seems that  here in 1947 a space ship with some aliens in it crashed outside of Roswell and the government tried to cover it up.....at least that is how the local story goes.

Does anyone think it strange that aliens supposedly landed in July of 1947 and my sister

was born nine months later.........You decide :)

The museum is filled with first person testimonies, pictures and artifacts, pictures of other sitings, life size statues of what the aliens looked like, a section on movies about aliens and of course a gift shop.

Frankly, it was a fun and enjoyable 45 minutes or so. I left not quite sure what to think. It would have been nice if someone, anyone, had an actual picture of the aliens or even a single piece of the space ship, but it seems that they were all either misplaced or stolen or just seemed to vanish. Go figure.

I continued up to Santa Fe and was again struck by the number of  brush fire damage along the way. I seemed to make really good time on this stretch of road.

 Mid afternoon I finally arrived in Santa Fe where I met up with an old college friend from Dickinson, Carol Graebner. Exchanging hugs we sat down to a glass of wine and some conversation and she told me what she had planned for us. Carol has lived in Santa Fe full time for three years and loved the area. It was apparent that she was going to be the ultimate tour guide. It was going to be a fun couple days here.