Carlsbad Caverns, part 2

Day 3 - off to the Caverns at last! We chose to walk down, which was incredible. It took us a little less than two hours of slowly steadily walking down to reach the bottom. Ella was a little nervous at first as we approached the mouth of the cave (so aptly named!) and said, "I wish Grandpa was here."

Can you see Rand?

I did not think about having a one-year-old in a giant echoey cave....whoops. But overall Daisy was pretty quiet and actually fell asleep on the way down. No strollers were allowed so my arms got an excellent workout. Once we made it to the bottom we opted for the elevator up - 750 feet in two minutes!

We picked up Doug and went to Happy's for lunch, where the kids meals are served with the happiest French fries I'd ever seen.

We went back to the caverns, where Doug, Rand, and Ella went on a guided tour while Daisy and I hung out (kids younger than four weren't allowed). They said it was AWESOME.

We decided to stay and watch the bats leave the cave at dusk. We had some time to kill so we went on a short hike. We saw a huge centipede, a bat, an abandoned guano mine, and some gorgeous views.

The bats were incredible. We weren't allowed to bring cameras or phones, but the crowd sat so quietly in a stone ampitheathere and waited for the bats to start flying out. It looked like a tornado of bats leaving the cave. You could hear them flying! There was an almost full moon so watching them fly out and towards it was so beautiful. After five minutes R&E were ready to go home but I made them sit and watch a while longer because I was enjoying myself.