A Day At The Bat Cave

Holy Guano, Bat Man! The bats have all gone south for the winter! Silly me! I thought this WAS south for the winter. But it's too cold for insects. So if it's too cold for them, there would be nothing to eat for the bats. I reckon they are in Acapulco about now. But never mind, the ride to the Carlsbad Caverns was breath-taking and the long steep walk down into the cavern was even better. Perhaps the most famous cavern in the world for the daily (in season) flight of the bats, it is also quite noteworthy for the beautiful structures inside the cavern as well. I visited here with my family, as I had with some of the other places we visited, some 50 years ago. You hold a memory of things this grand for a long time. I had remembered the appearance of the natural entrance to the cavern quite well. And I had told Marilyn about the huge cafeteria 750 feet down into the cavern. I remembered it as big, bright, and noteworthy. But when we got down there, we found only a small snack stand in a dimly lit corner next to the elevators that whisk you back to the surface. (Walking down is strenuous in and of itself - doubt there are many who could hoof it back up even if they wanted to...) It was hard to understand how a memory so strong could have proved so different. But back at the surface in the gift shop, Marilyn found a postcard of the very same cafeteria I had remembered. "Could we possibly have missed it?" we asked the clerk. "No, it hasn't been down there since 1960 when it was removed."
Other than the location of the cafeteria, about the only thing that has changed visibly was a change or two in the path to the bottom and a stainless steel railing- which helped us old timers out quite a bit. The cavern is full of lovely images top to bottom. Here are some of them in a slide show: