And now it's back onto the highway to go hike at Guadalupe Mountains for another hike! We're fresh on vaca and everyone has mostly 99% fresh legs, right! Let's hike.
Mama is a big fan of visting gift shops and visitor centers where the three males would likely just head out and find stuff, get into trouble and eventually die. Mama keeps us going... We were sitting outside the visitor center here thinking that she had applied for a job AND got IT!!
It seemed like forever but that's probably because it was 106 degrees outside (humidity, according to my phone was only 6%). None-the-less, it's HOT! We sat outside for however long, the boys and I, that is... These first few pics were taken in the parking lot and as we're waiting for Mama to come back out of the visitor center.
Then she came out, pamphlets in hand and ready to go. So, I guess we go now! But not before a family selfie taken by Rob in the event one of us should perish in the heat!
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| Fams!! From here we will tread off into Guadalupe Mountain's for a hike where, once we found the actual trail, the boys were off and leading. That's pretty awesome right there. We'll hike for a bit and look at some pictures... |
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From probably this point on, you'll start seeing my (Ted) love of a dead tree with scenery around it. There is something a bit noble and profound about them in my eyes. The average person views these trees as dead. Pure and simple. And for all intents and purposes, they are. But what I LOVE about them is that they are still standing in the abundant life that surrounds them! It has a poetic resemblance to us humans as we struggle with situations in our lives. We all go thru these times.
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| We've hiked a bit of distance at this point and sucked a LOT of water out of our water-carrying backpacks. |
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| A flowering cactus. Again, may I go off on a bit of a... thought. We're in the desert. It's hot. It's really friggin' HOT! Dry as a popcorn fart (as the saying goes!). Here is a plant where God has declared it will show its beauty in extremely tough times. It will blossom at the Creators will. God bless us all! |
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| We were hiking a trail called "Devil's Hall". It was about this time when we encountered a strapping young lad who was returning from the full hike. Mama, in her full nurse mode, struck up conversation with him. She learned from him that the rest of our hike was not "worth it". He had expressed that the most we would see is some of the river "walls" and we should not spend our time going further. We took his advice. Keep reading to see the error of our ways and (lack of) ability to tell time. We did not have time to hike the full trail and get back in time for the bats. This conversation was based on the time on my phone... |
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Rob found a huge boulder to climb up on. Don't worry about his posture, while he is dancing, he's about as whooped as we all are. Did I mention it's a bit warm out here?
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| The color of the desert trees/shrubs/?? fascinate me? I have no explanation of why they are this way but I do plan to research it! |
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| Somewhat defeated, but not really disappointed, we head back to the van as we want to see the bats come out of Carlsbad Caverns tonight! We reversed course to head back to the van (in Monty Python speak: RUN AWAY!). |
We were back to the van. We had just visited the rooms of rest, and were now sitting in the van drinking ice cold water and power aid from the cooler. It was at this point that we discovered during our hike, we had either crossed, or my phone THOUGHT, we had crossed time zones and we truly had another hour to kill. We decided to go back to Carlsbad Caverns and do a short hike and the "loop road".
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| This was on our very short hike to a natural shelter that native Americans would use to remove themselves from the elements and for overnight stays. |
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| You could shield a lot of people and animals under this canapy! |
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| This is one one of the more convincing pictures of where you should "maybe" take a minivan on vacation! We got up to about 35 mph few times but there were a good many places where 15mph were plenty! |
We made it back to the entrance of the cave for the bat's exit this evening. It was close as we were worried about the time it was taking on our "4x4 tour" in our minivan! But, we made it!
We made it within so much time that I had the priveledge to be annoyed by one family inparticular! I will spare the details but, man...
At some point, after a very awkward intro from a newer park ranger, the terroristic families mom asked in a sooper-pooper tone, "when is the last time that the bats came out on time during a presentation like this?". The easy answer is, LAST FRIGGIN' NIGHT WHEN YOUR FAMILY WASN'T HERE!!!!!
So, the bats coming out of the cave? Pretty cool, but a bit of a disappointment. It was a bit hard to see them as it's obviously dusk when they come out, but still cool. Glad we saw it. Don't have to see it again.
That being said, there is a large bridge in Austin, TX where I hear you stand on the bridge and the bats come up around you and the leathery sound is stunning, not to mention the site of them! I still want to see that.
Back to the camper for the night. Say, "Hi" to the kitty who happily greeted us, shower and bed. Off to Alamogordo tomorrow!
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