Our first night in Carlsbad presented us with a very disappointing rv park (Carlsbad RV and Campground); not only did they charge a higher price than quoted but the the restrooms and shower facilities were filthy; they not only smelled of urine but paper was always littered about the floors and sinks and the shower curtains - well, just ewwww nasty. I recommend you look elsewhere if looking for a nice place to stay while enjoying the Carlsbad area. After few hours of sleep we had a light breakfast and headed up the mountain to see the Living Desert Zoo. The cost was only $5pp and accepts donations to help maintain the zoo; this activity is highly recommended if ever in this area. The rangers were very knowledgeable about the desert lands; and, all the animals and exhibits are indigenous to the area. The entire walking tour took about and hour and a half but we could have stayed longer if we hadn't planned to do the cavern tour, watch the flight of bats at sundown and star-gaze thereafter.

Part of the living zoo included an aboratum which had every species of cacti found in the Carlsbad area; some species were so unusal they looked alien-like. They have a bear named Maggie - that brought me a flower and a javelina named Lena, that liked you to talk to her...she never grunted back but she liked to hear human voices that called her name. A raven was very chatty - he clicked at us for the longest time...when we'd say "hello", he'd go, "click, click, click" and followed us along his enclosure (he is being treated for an injured wing). The zoo is also a wild animal hospital; they are also treating a golden eagle with an injured leg as well as numerous other wild, desert creatures. The view from the Living Desert Zoo overlooks the city of Carlsbad and beyond. The zoo and the location was a favorite attraction - even though it was mostly an outside activity and the temperature was mid nineties. Bring water, wear a hat and stay hydrated...there were fountains along the trails but I thirsted before reaching one.

After leaving the zoo we drove about 15 miles to Carlsbad Caverns; the ranger staff was very friendly and accomodating. We took the natural entrance and walked down 750 feet to the "Big Room" which is the largest room inside any cave in the U.S.; Mammouth Cave in KY being the longest cave system. The inside temperature of the cave was a welcoming 54 degrees but even so, with my hot-flashes (uh-moments), I turned the cave into a rain forest. The hike down was the easiest cave I have ever entered - couldn't even call it splunking...there were no tight squeezes, no crawling or ducking and it was all well lit...all was very open and much of the natural trail was wheelchair friendly. We enjoyed about 3 hours walking around the "big room", admiring the speleothems and me - enjoying the cool temperature.

The last self- guided hiker had to be out of the cave by 7:00pm; we were far ahead of that so we drove back down the hill to White's City for dinner at the Cactus Cafe (only restaurant in town) before heading back up the hill to watch the nightly flight of the bats. Dan told me a funny story about his experience when he decided to rent a plane and fly out to see the caverns. The store and barn are still there, other buildings missing but the memory will last forever.

We had seen pictures of the bats flying out of the cave and was patiently waiting their departure, along with a couple of hundred other people. To our disappointment, the nightly flight consisted of only about 500 bats and they weren't at the same time...maybe over a period of an hour. We sat and watched the desert awaken as darkeness fell; we saw a racoon wander from around some rocks and walk along the upper cave entrance and we saw a critter that was about a 1-1/2 long with a thick tail of equal length, all brown in color (not a ring-tail); it resembled a weasel (but two and a half times larger) and it slinked its way across and inside a crevace that ran along the entire top of the cave and down the side - out of sight into the darkening desert. We were fortunate that there was several bat researchers at the viewing area and luckier that we spoke, in length with one of the researchers to find out why so few bats took flight. There is no rhyme or reason, the males may have spent the day out somewhere else and the females didn't need to feed; she explained that bats were cyclic and the clutches increase and decrease in size from season to seaon and night to night. It was also good to know that because we have never had bats come roost in any of our bat boxes, it didn't mean they weren't good boxes - bats are unpredicatable and they, too have boxes that bats don't want. After getting all the information we could remember, we were ready to watch the night sky. One of the off-duty rangers brought his telescope and set up to watch Saturn; he offered to share his toy and I admit it was a nice scope but the one I bought Dan a few years ago provided a bit better magnification and clarity with which we could see 5 of Jupiter's moons and more detailed images of Saturn's rings and cost bookoo's less than his. The sky was beaming with stars and an ocassional satelite; it was all we could do to tear ourselves away from the mountaintop and the spectacular night sky. We were nearly the last people to leave the mountain; the drive down at night was a posted 30 mph, or less speed limit because the desert comes alive at dark and creatures great and small use the roads and trails like people do in the daytime.

The visit to Carlsbad was impressive and educational but it was time to hit the road - we had two tires waiting on us in Alamogordo.