Onto Carlsbad Caverns and Santa Fe

Winds continued overnight as we could hear it throughout the night and feel the car rocking. By Tuesday morning, the winds had not subsided and we made a fast getaway towards Carlsbad Caverns.

We had some range anxiety since our car showed 78 miles of range remaining and we had about 64 miles to get to the next charger. We drove carefully and our range anxiety immediately eased. In fact, by heading downhill so much and with the tail wind, we arrived at the charger with 75 miles remaining on the range!

The 45-minute trip to Carlsbad Caverns was pretty with the Guadalupe Mountains to our left the whole time. We also did a few walks in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park before we arrived at the visitor center. The visitor center was informative, and we spent about 40 minutes in there before heading underground. 

The caverns were amazing in so many ways. Learning about their discovery and history augmented the beauty of the caverns themselves. We've been to a few caves before but nothing like this. We took lots of pics, but they don't really do it justice. We spent about 3 hours underground before heading out to Sante Fe. 

It was a 5-mile drive from the park's entrance to the visitors' center and entrance to the cave. Lots to see as we rose in elevation.

This was the "hotel" way back in the day. A natural shelter that was used by humans for thousands of years.

A very short hike to the top of a ridge near the visitors' center provided a great view of the area below.

We elected to take the hike down into the cavern rather than the elevator (a great option for those with mobility issues). It was VERY steep and seemed to go on for a very long time (1.25 miles to be exact). You could feel the air get more humid and cooler as you descended.

A look back up at the entrance after descending for about 1/3 of a mile.

We just kept going down - we eventually descended 750 vertical feet. The cave just kept opening up before us.

The geological timescale of the creation of these formations is mind blowing - they were made a drip at a time. How many thousands of years did it take to make this?

This is named the "Whale's Mouth" for obvious reasons. 

Looking up at the ceiling in one room you could see the holes that the acid had made in the rock.

We thought that this one looked like a dwarf from the Lord of the Rings!

Looking across a large room, one of many that we toured.

The formations coming from the ceiling were my favorite - they are called "draperies". They look delicate like cloth, but are made of stone.

More drapes.

This room is 1/4 mile across. The scale of these caves is hard to comprehend, even after seeing them in person.

This is probably the most famous formation in the caves, called the "Crystal Dome". It is enormous and still growing since it is located in a wetter part of the caves.

This area of the system of caves is more active due to the higher amount of moisture coming through the ceiling.

This is called the "Rock of Ages", but I prefer the "Bearded Dragon" (my own moniker).

After completing the tour of the caves, we got back on the road to make to Santa Fe, NM by the evening. Strong winds continued most of the way, causing a number of dust storms which affected our visibility. Fortunately, they were cross winds, rather than coming head on, so they didn't affect our range as much. At one point we even were detoured about 10 miles when the dust storm closed a road. 

Eastern New Mexico is desolate and largely uninhabited from what we could see. We went a 100 mile stretch without seeing a tree over 3 feet tall. Towns are also very few and far between. We had another charging scare in Vaughn, NM when one charger wouldn't work at all, and the second would not take the credit card. It only activated when we used the app. Crisis was averted, we charged up and moved on down the road.

We also passed through Roswell on our route, though we didn't stop there. Still, we got some flavor as we drove through the town, which was larger than we had previously thought.

We made it to Sante Fe around 8:00 PM after leaving Carlsbad Caverns around 12:45. We had a nice dinner at Tomasita's and learned the Mexican/TexMex food is spicier here than in NC, no surprise there! Then on to the Guadalupe Inn, a small hotel with lots of charm where we rested for the night.