Carlsbad Caverns

Let us begin the saga of Carlsbad Caverns and the Guadalupe Mountains by noting that this was Robb's birthday. Robb was pretty pumped about spending his birthday in a really cool cave with a bat show at dusk. The first stop was the caves. You can take a super long hike into the caves, or take a 750 foot elevator ride from the visitor's center. We opted for the elevator.

One minute of ear-popping fun as we descended into the depths

We need to work on our scared faces. They are way to smiley. 

 The cave was utterly amazing. Also very hard to photograph. They had strategic lights around the cave, but it was very dark overall. It must have been terrifying for the first explores who explored it by lantern light without the nice paved trail to walk on. 

Elliot was very much done after 20ish minutes in the cave, but we had to finish the loop back to the elevators. He wasn't too pleased with the situation.

Our campground was 45 minutes away from the caves. Actually it was across the border from New Mexico into Texas. We still had the bat show to watch at the caves, but we didn't want to set up tents in the dark. We decided to drive to the Pine Springs Campground, set up our tents, drive back to 45 minutes to see the bat show, and then let the kids fall asleep in the car as we drove back to the campground for the night. 

We weren't allowed to have phones turned on during the show because it messes with their echolocation, so here's a picture from the internet

 The bat show did not disappoint! There is a big amphitheater facing the mouth of the cave. As the sun starts to set, millions of bats POUR out of the cave in a whirlwind. They make cool patterns like ribbons in the air as they disperse. It took a solid 20 minutes or so before the flow slowed down. It was mesmerizing. 

45 minutes later, we carried our sleeping kids into our unfortunately damp tent. It rained pretty hard at the campground while we were at the bat show. It is amazing how you can truly get used to anything- even sleeping in a slightly damp sleeping bag. 

When we woke up, we found out that the Hays tent had been hit way worse than ours. They have a much bigger tent and the rain fly doesn't cover it nearly as well. They had standing water in their tent and a lot of their blankets were soaked. They decided to spend the night sleeping in the van. Happy Birthday, Robb!

The report was that the kids slept great (minus Emmett who never sleeps great). Robb and Lakin were not nearly as comfy in the front seats. 

We got around to eating his birthday cake the next morning for breakfast