Carlsbad Caverns

In August, we had a Harwood family reunion in Colorado Springs...it's a long drive, so we decided to stop and see a few things on the way..one of which was Carlsbad Caverns, NM. We've been there before, 8 years ago when we first moved to Texas, but Wyatt had never been...and the boys didn't remember :)

Outside the visitor center
So, armed with flashlights...

sort of...
...and devastatingly good looks ;)
We are ready to enter the belly of the beast

Carlsbad caverns are HUGE...you can't even begin to capture it on a camera...the main room is 14 football fields long!!
That's big.

Conor started us off with a tour of the formations... he is a good li'l ranger

I asked Lance if I could have this in my backyard...

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was modeled after this...before it..leaned..

This one is called "The Witch's Toes". When the boys asked why it was called that, I told them because they belonged to the witch who sleeps in the cave and if you touch anything you aren't supposed to, it wakes her up and then she eats you.

Ranger Conor also informed us that if you get dripped on while in the cave it is called a "cave kiss" and it's considered good luck...

Naturally the kids thought if you got hit by a drip it's good luck, so if you catch one in your mouth it's even BETTER luck...that is, until I told them to knock that off...you don't know where that drip has been....it's probably crawling with Ebola or cave cancer...

They always have such "clever" names for these formations...This one is called "The Lion's Tail"...ok...I can see it...but what about the one on the left?....probably from a lion that got cave cancer

We saw the light at the end of the tunnel...but I wouldn't let anyone walk toward it.

The rangers tried to tell us this was "Cave Popcorn", but I correctly informed the kids that it was actually "Cave Acne" and their faces would look just like that if they didn't wash them....or eat their vegetables.

There are a lot of rules in a cave...don't touch the millions of years of growth...don't knock down stalactites and take them home....don't yell--why the heck not? We're in a CAVE not church! don't enter restricted areas...bah! They are probably just trying to keep the cave treasure all to themselves, without sharing...selfish rangers.


This is my hunka burnin' love :)
I just had to post this because it's one of the very FEW "normal" shots we have of Lance...he's always pulling some obnoxious face...but I caught him off guard! HA!

Here's Lance trying to convince me there's no bottom in the "Bottomless Pit"

Some people are easier to convince..


Here we found the "brain" of the cave

Then Lauren and I found the "heart" :)


On the way out, we hit the gift shop to get ourselves some "Canned Bat"
yum.

Conor and Wyatt were doing the Jr. Ranger program...I helped Conor on the page where it tells you to draw what you see in the cave:

People licking stalagmites

Climbing over do not enter signs...

Then Lance said, "He has to turn that in ya know".....

Oh. Yeah.

Luckily that ranger had a good sense of humor, so Conor and Wyatt were granted their badges

And last, but not least--the girls wanted to see what it was like to be a cave ranger...

They decided it wasn't for them...they will leave that kind of stuff to Uncle Cody!! :)

The next day we go to Roswell!!
Don't wanna miss that!!!