Bottomless Lakes State Park, Antelope, Siera Blanca Peak

We took a short trip to Bottomless Lakes State Park today to do some hiking.  Bottomless Lakes SP is a series of  nine sinkholes that have filled with water.  They were formed much like Carlsbad Caverns when surface water water eroded the limestone and gypsum layers of rock beneath causing caverns.  The caverns collapsed causing the sink holes which filled with fresh water. 

Double Sink Hole  Called Figure Eight Lake

Donna And Darby On The Edge Of A Sinkhole

Another Sinkhole

The Largest Sink Hole - Lea Lake 

Herd of Antelope Just Outside The Park 

On the way back from the park took this view of Sierra Blanca, an 11,981 Foot Inactive Volcano. This pic is from about 80 miles away - we should be driving past this en route to our next destination - will try to get some better pics of it.

Roswell, New Mexico, Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, UFO Museum

We left our boondocking spot in Carlsbad, New Mexico and moved to Midway RV Park near Roswell, New Mexico, home of the famous "Roswell Incident" in July of 1947.  The park we are staying at is decent - not fancy but very functional.  We are staying here a week mainly to get mail and packages shipped to us and do some maintenance on the RV. 

Our Route

Our Site

We visited Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge the other day.  The refuge is remarkable for being a natural oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert for migratory birds and for other animals.  The bitter taste of the water for which the lake was named and the white patches of soil near the shore are a result of natural deposits of gypsum in the area.  We saw quite a few types of migrating birds but they were so far away and so skittish that it was difficult to get any decent photos.

Gypsum patches on shore

Probably a White Faced Ibis - taken from a long way away

A pod or squadron of White Pelicans from about 1/3 mile away - strange to see pelicans in the desert

 Male Shoveler

Another Shoveler

The largest solar farm I have ever seen just outside of Roswell - it covers 1400 acres (over 2 square miles) and produces 140 megawatts, enough to power 40,000 homes.

On the highway entering the City of Roswell

Roswell has lots of quirky shops mostly themed around aliens and UFO's

The UFO Museum - lots of historical information on the Roswell Incident and a few displays - worth seeing if you are in the area

Carlsbad Caverns National Park - Carlsbad, New Mexico

Today we traveled to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  I saw the caverns in 1969 or 1970 but Donna has never seen them.  We went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky last year and Carlsbad Caverns is far and away more impressive.  The rooms and chambers are many times larger that those at Mammoth Cave.

The entrance to the park

Donna at the entrance to the visitor center

The natural entrance to the caverns.  You have a choice of entering the caverns at the natural entrance or taking the elevator down to the main caverns.  We chose the natural entrance which adds about a mile to the self guided tour which makes the tour about 2.8 miles altogether. The main caverns are about 800 feet underground the "Big Room" is about 4,000 feet long, 625 feet  wide, and 255 feet  high at the highest point.  250 million years ago this area of New Mexico was an inland sea.  The caverns were formed when the sea dried up and surface water eroded the limestone.

A formation on the way to the main caverns

One of the large caverns at the 800 foot level

The rest of the photos are of formations in the main caverns

Note the people near the center of the image - helps you visualize the scale of things

The caverns were quite impressive and we would recommend stopping here to anyone traveling to this part of the country.

We are leaving our BLM campsite in the morning - next stop - Roswell, New Mexico.

Carlsbad, New Mexico BLM Camping - Guadalupe Mountains National Park

We left Fort Stockton on Friday and drove to a BLM campsite near Carlsbad, New Mexico.  The campsite is a flat open camping area on Government land where you can camp for free - no hookups but the price is right.  

Our campsite - this is a large open area in the desert about 10 miles from the city of Carlsbad.  It is a good location as it is near town but also about 15 minutes (the opposite way from town) from Carlsbad Caverns National Park which is one of the places we want to see and about 45 minutes from Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The first couple nights there was only one other camper here and this evening it looks like there will be four.   The place is very clean and very quiet and peaceful - except for the wind - the wind was really ferocious today. 

Our camper from about a mile away using a telephoto lens.

We went and checked out the City of Carlsbad today - this is a panoramic view from a hilltop overlooking the city.  We hiked up a trail we found behind the University Of New Mexico satellite campus (click on the picture to enlarge)

The entrance to Guadeloupe National Park

El Capitan (the other one) the rocky outcropping to the left of the mountain and Guadalupe Peak - the highest point in Texas at 8751 feet (the park is in Texas) - we had to drive back to Texas to enter the park.  We enjoyed the park  even though it wasn't on our list of things to see - we were so close that we decided we should check it out.

We had planned to do a long hike while here but unfortunately most of the trails don't allow dogs so that didn't happen.  We were however able to do the "Pinery Trail" which has the remains of a stage stop  from the 1800's (enlarge the next two pictures for details).

Donna and Darby on the trail to the stage stop ruins

The ruins of the main building

The remains of one of the outbuildings

Just about a mile down the road from the main entrance is the Frijole Ranch which is the most complete example of a working ranch from the 1800's in the Guadalupe Mountains

The main ranch house and outbuildings

One last view as we were leaving