Today we journeyed into the deep Carlsbad Caverns - 750 feet below the Earth's surface. Now you wanna talk about dark, these were some dark caverns. We opted for a tour of the Left Hand Caverns and it was a lantern tour. That means we went old school had had literal candle, hand-held lanterns.

It was a cheap tour (price-wise it was a priceless experience) $17 each person, and about 2 hours in length. The hiking itself was not too strenuous, but it was a lot of walking/exploring. We had a park ranger as our tour guide and we were with about 15 other people. At one point we came to a clearing and we got to sit and blow out our candles and be in complete darkness. That was by far my favorite part. We also sat in silence during that time and it was really cool to experience pure darkness and pure silence.

After hiking back there was an area where you could do a self-guided hike in a different part of the caverns, and we did that right after. We were able to get some better pictures on this part because it was lighted all around.

It was Chelsea's idea to go to these caverns, and it was such a cool experience. Walking around the caverns felt like walking in line at Indiana Jones at Disneyland, but you know, real. We had a 9 am tour so we could get a good head start on our day. Next stop...ROSWELL!