Carlsbad Caverns

On our way to Corpus Christi, TX we detour to Carlsbad Caverns.  All the guided tours are sold out by the time they open out - crazy but you can still walk the caverns on your own.  I've never been in a cavern - I've only caved with Josh so this was way different that what I was expecting.  Paved floors, rails, spot lights on formations and often little posts describing and summarizing different cave features.  

We didn't really need head lamps but my dad bought the whole family some for Christmas so we figured lets bring them, some spots were not as well lit so they came in pretty helpful. 

The pictures are not the best but it was SUPER neat in there.  AND IT WAS HUGE!!!

Seriously worth seeing if you find yourself near Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. 

These are called Lion Tails and they were so pretty, I hadn't seen these in the other 3 caves Josh & I have been to.  This cave wasn't nearly as wet as others which was nice because it wasn't as muddy.  

Josh & I are both disappointed on how poorly the pictures came out, but this was awesome looking in the cave, many of our pictures came out too dark but at least you can kind of see the stalagmites.  

It is about a 2 1/2 hour self-guided tour and holy smokes will you work out your legs, it is a constant decline the whole way down.  Thankfully there was an elevator because there was no way I'd be able to hike that up.  I'd recommend not going on a holiday weekend, really packed, we went the Saturday before New Years Eve/Day and it was pretty busy.  But you can go at your own pace and it was amazing.  

Good thing we got to stretch out our legs because we had another 10 hours of driving to Corpus Christi, TX :(