Trip to Carlsbad Cavers, White Sands, and Crater of Diamonds

The Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas. We looked for a while but didn't find any diamonds. We did find a few other rocks, though. 

Next stop was Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. This is part of the road leading in as seen from above. 

The caverns were spectacular. We did the tour of the big room on the first day, taking the elevator down. It is about a mile and a half walking tour thru the big room and connected areas.

The next day, we went over to White Sands National Park. It was a very different landscape, sort of like beach dunes, but snow white.

The next day, we walked down into the caverns from the natural entrance. It's very steep and also about a mile and a half. We got to the big room part of the cave in about two hours. This is also the exit for the bat flights. There are about 50,000 bats that inhabit the cave during the summer months and they come out almost every night to feed. We watched them take flight twice during our stay. They have their own part of the cave where humans are not allowed to go.

The views going down were also spectacular, ending up about 750 feet below the surface.

There is a cafeteria and restrooms near the big room. The immense size of the cave is mind-boggling.

We saw some desert bighorns climbing up what looked like a sheer rock face, but they had no trouble finding a foothold to climb with. There were about 20 in this herd. 

On our way back we stopped at Hot Springs National Park and went to Garvan Woodland Garden. Natalie had read about the Anthony Chapel located there and wanted to see it. Stunning place. The gardens spread out over 200 acres.

And we spent an afternoon wandering bathhouse row in Hot Springs later that afternoon. The fact that there isn't any volcanic activity in the area makes the hot springs more interesting. There are cold springs there, too.