“Road Trip USA 🇺🇸 Part 2 of 6 ~Driving From Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, to Carlsbad Cavern National Park in Texas, Guadeloupe Mountain National Park in New Mexico and Driving thru Arizona” October 2024

• November 2, 2024
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

ROAD TRIPPIN!

Day 2 

4AM -5PM

After our visit at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, on Day 1, in the early morning, we continued driving that day, as far as Andrews, Texas, (big time oil field town) where we spent the night, then on to our next National Park visit; Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico.

Comfort Inn

Andrews, Texas

One Night

10 hours

647 miles

Day 3

 5:30AM – 6:30PM

It was a long drive from Andrew’s, Texas to Carlsbad Cavern National Park, New Mexico. I drove before sun up, on every day, so Daryl could drink his coffee and eat breakfast. I don’t do any food or coffee at 4AM.  Ha!

We were not doing interstates all the time. It could be very dark on state highways, so it was slow-going, for good reason. While I drove every morning, before sunset, when we were fresh and rested, we very seldom drove after sunset, when road weary, unless we were trying to find a motel, which usually worked out, pretty quickly. 

2.5 hours

133 miles

Though we were traveling through Texas, we would leave there, briefly, and enter New Mexico, to visit Carlsbad Cavern National Park, which was close to the border.

CARLSBAD CAVERN NATIONAL PARK

We entered the Park before any staff were on duty. Again, we enjoyed another beautiful sunrise, and got to drive in an area that showed the rocky/desert-y layout. It was very pretty.

We had no plans to visit the cave, and this was a good thing, as it’s a timed-entry and the morning tours were all booked. One must go on tour, only, to enter the cave.

Something special about this cave would be to observe the bats. I’ve been in more caves all around the world, than I can count, so they don’t hold the appeal, anymore, but the bats would be awesome to witness, going in and out, to feed. Maybe one day we will go back and observe them.

What a beautiful Park to drive through at sunrise!

The World of Bats

Carlsbad Cavern is a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats (also known as Brazilian free-tailed bats). During the day they crowd together on the ceiling of Bat Cave; a passageway near the natural entrance of Carlsbad Cavern. In this darkened home they are seen only by scientific researchers. At nightfall the bats leave the cave in gigantic swarms. Silhouetted against the night sky like a dark, swift-moving could, the bats make their most dramatic display. Other extraordinary characteristics of bats—their natural sonar system and their ability to fly—make these creatures of darkness of great interest.

Echolocation

Like most species of bats, Mexican free-tailed bats navigate and locate their prey by emitting ultra-high frequency sounds. Known as echolocation, this natural sonar system is similar to that used by dolphins and whales. When a bat’s signals strike an object, they are reflected back and heard by the bat. The bat then takes whatever action is appropriate, whether it be zeroing in on a moth and other flying insects or swerving to avoid a tree limb.

Mexican Free-tailed

As many as seven types of bats may roost in Carlsbad Cavern, but none is as prevalent as the Mexican free-tailed. This dark brown to gray bat is distinguished by its long, narrow wings and a free-dangling, skinny tail. Only a part-time resident of Carlsbad Cavern this migratory bat stays here and in other Southwest caves from early spring through October. It flies to tropical Mexico and further south for the winter.

Bat Families in the Cave

Bat Cave serves as a summer home, a daytime refuge, and, perhaps most importantly, as a maternity roost for Mexican free-tailed bats. The bats, which are mammals, migrate from Mexico to Carlsbad Cavern each year to give birth and raise their young. Young are born in June, under the cover of darkness and away from predators or disturbances. A female usually has just one offspring. Each birth occurs on the ceiling as the mother hangs by her toes and thumbs. The baby (called a pup) clings to its mother or to the ceiling. For the next four to five weeks, the youngster stays on the ceiling. During the day, mothers and pups hang in clusters on the ceiling, resting and nursing. As many as 300 bats may crowd into one square foot. At night the young are left in the cave while the adults leave to feed. How does a mother ever find her own baby in the teeming mass of pups? She remembers her pup’s location, its scent, and the sound of its cry. In July or August each young bat takes its first flight, joining the adults on nightly forays. In Bat Cave, bats share their quarters with only a few insects and spiders. In late October or early November the adults and young leave for Mexico—and return again next year.

Night Flight

The spectacular flight of the Mexican free-tailed bat begins with a few bats fluttering out of the natural entrance of Carlsbad Cavern. Then in a matter of minutes a thick bat whirlwind spirals out of the cave up into the darkening night sky. The exodus can last from 20 minutes to 2½ hours. Once out of the cave the mass of thousands of bats undulates, serpentine fashion, toward the southeast to feed in the Pecos and Black river valleys. Once there, they gorge on moths and other night-flying insects. Using echolocation, its sonar system, each bat may catch and eat more than half their body weight in insects in a single night. With the coming of dawn, the bats begin flying back to the cave individually or in small groups. They reenter the cave in a fashion almost as remarkable as their departure. Each bat positions itself high above the cave entrance. It then folds its wings close to its body and plummets like a hailstone into the blackness of Carlsbad Cavern, making strange buzzing sounds as it does. One by one, the bats return to the safety of Bat Cave, where they sleep until dusk the next evening.

⬇️ These are not my photos of the cave entrance and inside. The view is not visible from up on top, driving or parking.

NOTE: One needs to hike down into the cave, 700 feet below the earth’s surface. The trail access is through the museum, in the Visitor Center. The hike down into the cave is 1.25 miles long and takes at least an hour to get there.

The famous otherworldly rock​formations in a cavern system is so massive, it’s been called the ‘Grand Canyon with a roof.’

Carlsbad Cavern includes a large cave chamber, the “Big Room,” a natural limestone chamber which is almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 255 feet high at the highest point. It is the third-largest chamber in North America and the seventh-largest in the world.

All too soon, we were leaving Carlsbad Cavern, and back on the National Parks Highway, for our next stop; Guadeloupe Mountain National Park. It was not far down the road, but we would leave New Mexico, and enter into Texas, again, for this visit.

Carlsbad Cavern National Park, New Mexico

To

Guadeloupe Mountain National Park, Texas

30 minutes

32 miles

The Guadeloupe Mountain

 GUADELOUPE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a rugged mountain mass of uplifted marine fossil reef, in the Chihuahuan Desert of western Texas, just southwest of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Its highest peak is 8,751 feet above sea level.

The Park was authorized in 1966, and became established in 1972, and has an area of 135 square miles.

For over 10,000 years, the Guadalupes Mountains have witnessed a constant stream of human history, including bloody conflicts between Mescalero Apaches and Buffalo Soldiers, the passing of the Butterfield Overland Mail, the coming of ranchers and settlers, and finally, the making of a National Park.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park was once a reef, beneath the waters of an ancient inland sea. Today, this Park protects the world’s most extensive Permian fossil reef, and the four highest peaks in Texas.

To get to the top of the mountain in this Park, there are no roads with a scenic rim drive. There are no roads through the heart of this Park, but there are lots of hiking trails.

Guadalupe Peak Texas Highpoint Trail is one of the most popular trails in the park. Plan for around six hours and pack lots of water and snacks. The trail has 2,952 feet of elevation gain in 4.1 miles to the top. The beauty of this mountainous playground is that there are all kinds of trails, to take in the views.

For the Mescalero Apaches, the Guadalupe Mountains were the last stronghold. War with the Comanches forced bands of Apaches to retreat from the plains into these inhospitable mountains. They survived here by learning to utilize the native plants and animals.

After we left Guadeloupe Mountain National Park, we continued driving in Texas, then New Mexico again, till we made it to Arizona.

Our plans were to continue driving all day, till we, at least, made it to Riverside, California, but we ran in to traffic through the Tucson area on I-10, and lost two hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic. It was crazy.

The timing was very good to do this trip; all except for Arizona, due to the influx of people that leave cold climates to live in Arizona for the winter; snowbirds. The number of people increase by a million. We did not time this part very well, at all, so right away, we began making plans for our return from California, and to go through Arizona in the North; around Albuquerque. We love this area and it is not wildly populated. It would add some miles for sure, but at least we would be moving the whole time and not stuck in traffic at 2PM, and lose lots of pristine daylight driving hours!

We wish this was still open to explore, but it was all fenced up with a “do not enter” sign. Bummer.

We would only make it as far as Quartzite, Arizona, as the sun went down, where we would spend one night in an over-priced Super 8 Hotel, and unbeknownst at check-in there would be no hot water for showers in the morning.

I talked to the manager on the morning we left, at 4AM, and politely asked for a partial refund on our room, due to cold showers. $135 for one night was little pricy, but then to take cold showers, it was a total rip-off. He told me there WAS hot water, so apparently I was lying? Really? I told him I would just write a bad review, then, instead of argue with him about the situation.  He begged me not to write one, then I said, I wouldn’t, if he gives me $50 back on my credit card. He wasn’t fully tracking because he thought I was asking for a full refund. I said no, since we slept in the room for the night, after all. I was only unhappy about the cold shower part and wanted a partial refund to make up for that.

By this time, he had followed us out to our truck, asking again to not give a bad review. He finally told me he needed two days to get me the credit. I said fine, and I would wait those two days.  I was actually too busy to check, until four days later. No credit, so I wrote a scathingly bad review. Good luck to ’em. Nope, the Bunny doesn’t like cold showers at 3AM!!

Click here for Part 3 of this 6 Part road trip:

“Road Trip USA 🇺🇸 Part 3 of 6 ~We Made it to California from North Carolina” October 2024