Way cool!!!!  Can’t really describe the caves!  but this is something that should be on everyones Bucket list!  I enjoyed the cave so much that now I am ready to do one of the tours where you need the headlamp and have to crawl around on your knees!  I wanted to this time but we had “reservations” and had to get on our way.  Reservations is something we try not to do and this is why. 

Come along for a tour of the cave with me.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

The Natural Entrance

Here goes

The beginning of the desent into the cave

Looking back toward the entrance

Formations

More Formations

And more

Proof that we really did desend into the cave (at least Paul did!)

Above ground again

Some cactus are finally blooming

And that is the tour of the Carlsbad Cave.  The only thing you missed is the feeling you get when you walked into a black hole; the eerie feeling you get in total darkness; a chance to be in awe of the first guy who actually climbed into this hole and then convinced others to come with him; and lunch at 750 feet below ground level!  AWESOME!!!

I never expected New Mexico to be this beautiful but this town is so much like Lake Tahoe without the casinos, well there is one Indian Casino but it is out of town.  The town is a winter skiing destination, summer resort and an Artsy Colony.  Lots of tiny galleries, outdoor Art, Coffee houses and of course the 5 star Golf Resort.

SkiApache Ski Resort

From town you can see this massive mountain and you have to drive up a steep, windy, road 12 miles to get to the base of the mountain for skiing.  The drive was spectacular but I am not sure about it during winter conditions.  The ski mountain closed last week for the season so we didn’t get to ski but Duke did get to play in the snow.

Cold, what's that?

I'll find it!

The resort at the base

Looking back on our way down the mountain

The Valley below

 From here we wandered around the town of Ruidoso and then we went to the town of Capitan for breakfast.  Not much in this town but a school, this restaurant and Smokey Bear’s home!

Calamity Janes Coffee and Eatery

Not a fancy place but the biscuits and gravy were wonderful.  Paul was in heaven, a dive and good food!  The cook was a guy with many tattoos, a bandanna and very friendly.

Being refueled we headed to the Smokey Bear Museumwhere Smokey is buried today.  What a blast from the past.  I remember learning  about preventing forest fires in grade school complete with coloring contests and information to bring home to mom & dad telling them how to prevent forest fires.  Paul and I grew up on different sides of the USA but our memories sometimes are very much alike and this was one of them.  The only thing neither of us remembers is that Smokey was a real bear and he was rescued in a forest fire right near Capitan so today he is buried here and there is a really cute little museum that tells all about him.

Smokey, R.I.P

Just down the road from Smokey Bears place is the historic town of Lincoln where Billy the Kid hung out and the Lincoln County War was fought!  Had no idea what this was but apparently it was a local war between Murphy’s & Dolans and the Tunstall’s, The last great shootout of the Old West!  The things you learn when you have the time to explore these great roads and towns of the USA.

Torreon or Fort

This was pretty cool, it is the structure they built to protect themselves from Indians when under attack.  It had two floors and many places where they could shoot from within.  It had a fireplace in the bottom so I suppose they could stay there for quite a length of time – not me!

Our last stop for the day was back in Ruidoso at the Billy the Kid Museum.  Mostly there were lots of pictures and stories about the Old West.  Next door there was a museum for the American West however I was museumed out (is that even a word?). Outside they had this really cool sculpture.  You can’t see them all but there were probably 15 horses running along the fence.  They looked real!

A real Stampede

In the middle of New Mexico, just past PieTown you might think Aliens have taken root.  You come up over the horizon through some spectacular mountains and there in the middle of the desert floor, where cows should be grazing you will see 27 radio antennas in a Y shaped configuration – The Very Large Array.  We had to stop!  It is just too weird plus we had been driving for several hours without a break.  Paul was fascinated, me I was sure someone was going to start telling me about the Aliens taking over!  I am definitely not a believer and this is New Mexico.  It was very cool and even I learned something new today!  Inside one of these dishes you could place 2 of our homes side by side! 

Very Large Array

27 Radio Antennas

422 feet in diameter

Very Small Array!!!

 From here we did a lot more driving.  We finally hit an interstate, Interstate 25 at Socorro, NM and drove on it south for about 3 miles before heading towards Ruidoso, NM.  The problem with this was Paul didn’t see any fueling stations that met his requirements in Socorro and we thought we would see more before we left the Interstate but there were not any and we were down to less than 1/2  of a tank, 30  gallons and we were not sure the next town had any.  We can go about 200 miles with that much fuel except we had no idea about the roads and I could see from the map we had to go over a pretty high pass, the top was 12,000 feet although the road didn’t get anywhere near that high.  The good news is we found fuel wih about 15gallons of fuel left!  That is not much fuel for something this big and traveling these roads.  Paul said we were fine, I don’t think so cause after we got the 57 gallons of fuel we went over the pass and it was long and steep!

We found the Elks Lodge in Ruidoso and Paul was so happy cause we parked on their grass and got to have a beer with the locals!

Driving from Grand Canyon to Four Corners there is not much to see, a few small towns and lots of desert.  We spent the night in a roadside motel that was very short on ammenities infact it was missing a switch plate in the bathroom where the ground plug was for the hair dryer!  Pretty exciting.  We also had to sneak the dog in because there were not many hotels along the way and we were pretty tired and needed to rest – makes us appreciate that we usually have our RV with our own bed, soft towels and plenty of room for the dog!

While Paul was gassing up the car along highway 160 in Arizona we noticed that we could buy breakfast from one of the locals selling breakfast burritos from the trunk of his impala – I passed.

You see some interesting things out here in America.  In the middle of nowhere, between Grand Canyon and Four Corners we see a pickup truck parked in a field with two guys sitting on the tailgate behind a card table full of small items and a sign “YARD SALE”.  There was no yard, just the table and a truck, no house anywhere in sight, nothing!

We arrived at the Four Corners monument,paid our $3 each (the dog was free!) and drove up to the site.  This monument is on Native American land and is very remote.

We are all in different states

There were a few other people here also wanting to experience being in four states at the same time.  There were little kids putting one limb in each state – I bet those will be memorable photos to share someday.  A dad and son were playing football across the states while the mom was trying her best to operate the video camera.  What we do for memories.  There isn’t much here except for the monument and some local crafters and their goods.  We did have Fry Bread which is very much like a funnel cake.  It was very windy so we took our photo and returned to the highway.