No Chain: Carlsbad, New Mexico

A new ranger in town.

After the ride we had the day before we were all looking forward to a light day of cycling on the way to the Carlsbad Caverns national park just outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico. We were all woken up early in the morning by a storm that rolled through and gave our tents a test of their strength and water resistance. After a little incident with the chain and locks we had placed on our bikes overnight we hit the road to cold temperatures, blustery winds and a light rain, not exactly what we were hoping for. It was only 35 miles to the stop for the day but they felt much longer than that. We all met at the local store in Whites, New Mexico at the turn for the park to rack our bikes, we drank all the hot cocoa the store had to offer to warm ourselves as we waited for everyone to arrive before heading in to the caverns. The caverns were just as cool as white sands, being formed and transformed over the past 250 million years stretching for more than 21 miles beneath the surface of the earth. We descended into the dark to be surrounded by stalactites, stalagmites and a whole bunch of other stuff I don’t remember the name of. From the natural opening to the Big Room where we stopped for the day we descended 75 stories and nearly 2 miles over our 1.5 hour hike. The Big Room stretches 8.2 acres and felt like an amphitheatre for some of the more famous features such as the bottomless pit, Giant Dome, Rock of Ages and Painted Groto. It was breath taking in every direction and due to the free week of entrance to all the national parks was packed with tourists taking in the views. We ended the day with our first showers in 2 days at the First Baptist Church of Carlsbad where were spending the night before heading to Hobbs, New Mexico tomorrow. No Chain!