Bourne's BIG Trip: Carlsbad Caverns: The Surface

Jim White was just a regular farmer and cattleman from around the area, in his mid-teens, in 1898. He had seen the opening of the cave while discovered what he thought, from a long way away, to be black smoke rising. Turns out, it was hundreds and hundreds of bats swirling in the air, making rings and more rings. He was amazed, and later the next day returned with a makeshift rope ladder with some wood, and a small torch, going alone. Earlier, he had heard of the cave from other cowboys, but no one had ever gone in. He wanted to be the first, and to see what was down there. Going down into the deep, deep hole, down, down, down, he hit bottom and traveled around down there, seeing all the wonders you will read about in this blog and maybe the next, if it takes two long to tell in one edition. Over the years, he worked as a foreman for the bat guano (animal droppings) deposit, where several investors sold poop from bats to other people. Never thought I'd ever hear about that, people selling manure for profit, fertilizer and such. But it does happen, nonetheless. He tried to persuade people that Carlsbad Caverns were very beautiful and pretty, that they must go into the other cave. They thought his head was full of the guano he mined.

Finally, a young couple and photographer came down, and boy were they amazed! Jim White took them down in a guano well, and the photographer ran out of film like as soon as they came down, taking pictures of all the different wonders. One by one word spread by word of mouth, and Jim took people there by the dozens at a time. He built a house with his wife there, and took all the sandwiches she made, and people graciously thanked them for the experience with some money. There was a few funny stories to recount. But it was crazy to note that Jim was in the darkness down there on his first visit, totally black, not a sound nor a sight nor a smell. But still he traveled, persuaded, and fought for people that there was something that was so gorgeous and so beautiful you couldn't describe it. After years and years of "raising Hades about a cave" as one person said to him, the National Geographic and several other government organizations, made pictures and inspected it, not using Jim's makeshift wooden creaky staircase they had used to get down in. They finally made it a National Park in the 40's or 50's, and Jim was happy. They gave him medals and such, and the rest is history: literally so. Now to the blog!

We put on warm clothes, as suggested by the National Park pamphlet. It stays about 52 degrees year round, from the air circulating in and out... I'll mention more about that later. Taking the necessary video camera and phone and book (for the ride there, although I would find out later I wouldn't need it) we got into the jeep and prepared to go to Carlsbad Caverns, awaiting not just a cave, but a cave that had been recommended by so many as the place to be in New Mexico. But would it be so cool as they had thought or as it was? Only time would tell, as they say in so many novels and books. We got out of town, going through White's City, which I didn't know what was. There were several painted white storefronts, with some green aliens, because Roswell was relatively close. There were some Spanish style houses with those red roofs, and Mom told us that her parents had stayed their R.V. there, she thought or supposed. Well, we went farther, seeing dirt big hills of green little bushes and shrub, and piles of rocks...it was pretty, in a way. This was actually a National Park in itself, or they had one exactly like it, that I later wanted to see, but Dad said it was just like this. That mountain chain is Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and was actually a little to our east, in Texas.

Passing through this scenery, we came up hills and down hills, as I read in the Tramp book about some of the weird stories of the Rhine River, one of them about a kind of siren character that led men in and took them off the trance she had made, killing them. It was called Lorelie, which was funnily a character's name in Smells Like Dog, a book I had just read. Furthermore, in the book she like's Homer's Odyssey and compares their adventures to the great greek epic! The Lorelie character in Tramp was a siren figure, and so it's ironic and coincidental at the very same time! But I just thought it was interesting to note, perhaps? No, alright, we'll talk about something a little more exciting for the people of the world, mainly our readers in Roswell, GA and around the country. I do have some friends in England though; you will hear about them in a later blog. So we came up and got a wonderful view of the countryside, all the valleys and morning clouds and fogs slightly blurring the image, and the desert brown that dominated the spectacle. Well, on the left was a slightly big parking lot, where some R.V.'s were parked on the peak. Okay, something that was bugging me, if we're this high up at the moment, how in the world can there be a cave that is this high up, on this high of a hill?

The building had one small part and then it went right and left, with beige rock architecture. It wasn't actually that large, compared to ALL the buildings I've seen, museums and even National Parks. There was a National Park sign, that brown badge with the logo and the glittering rock, cut into the rectangular signpost. Walking in, we found on either side of the super cold part under the patio, two restrooms. Why put the restrooms in such a cold environment as this? It had been freezing all morning, and we really hoped that the cave would present some heat. Rebecca and Mom went to the restroom as Dad and I got out of the little threshold of in-between outside and inside, where the thick glass doors have a break and people can dust off their shoes? We talked about how cold it was and to not put restrooms out there. But in the summer, we should be saying how HOT it is, that people shouldn't be out there in the burning Hades. On either side of us was a hallway going out into a gift shop, and on a slant an information center to the left, with not on a slant, just along the wall, was the ticket counter. It was very new-looking, polished and a nice granite floor. We didn't know what to do first. Past a mini museum to the right was a bookstore, and to the left a gift shop and cafe. There were many, many tours to choose from.

Mom and Rebecca returned to us. There was a self-guided tour, in the "Big Room" of the cave, and also a guided tour, with a National Park Ranger, of the "King's Palace." I wondered why it was called that, but if we did the tour I would ask the Ranger. The King's Palace included the entrance that the person who first discovered the caverns used, so their would be some history tied into the tour, probably. The big room was the most famous "attraction" of Carlsbad Caverns, the most famous part. But we had many hours to engross here, and some were two hours, some one and a half, so we were glad. A little hungry though. Alright, we took the next available tour of the King's Palace, and we had like 20 or 30 minutes to kill until the tour. In the meantime, we would check out the mini-museum and bookstore, going right into all the panels and stuff about bats and the surrounding area, and if you're more interested in the science of C.C. (Carlsbad Cavern's name by me from here on out), please look on Google. That includes you adults who think you're too smart for your job or something like that; it's always good to learn even after your finished with college. Spencer, you know who your are. Don't try to hide from me!

The bat part was cool, finding out that bats were blind but that their hearing was acute, and that they actually saw and made radar waves by hearing, and how they sleep upside down, the materials in their claws that allow them to do that, and all the wing science, their gliding skills. I was pulled away from that as we walked further on, past a medium sized T.V. and to the left, where some shelves, and a small counter with a teenager reading a magazine, an office to the right and back of this guy. His back was to the hallway of the mini-museum, and we walked in and looked around. There were some interesting books, most about science and birds of New Mexico and cave geologic things, but there were a few folklore books, plus a medium long, but not very thick, pamphlet with a painted desert in the background, a blue stripe sideways with the word's in yellow: Jim White's Own Story and then in cursive on the desert, "The Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caverns, with a box, in yellow with many flashy colors under it making an obtuse angle, a painting of big dome columns, in tiny letters"Twin Domes and Giant Stalagmites in Big Room" and in black big lettering below" BY JAMES LARKIN WHITE (smaller) THE CAVE'S ORIGINAL DISCOVERER AND EXPLORER AS TOLD TO FRANK ERNEST NICHOLOSON. I would look at the book later, but asked Mom if we could buy it, and she agreed, asking the teenager how many people a year came here. He answered like 7,000.

7,000? For a place as big and nice as this, that had so many people we had seen visiting (there were little to no parking spots) today? Well, maybe he just wasn't in the know, as they say. He seemed kind of...well, er, teenager-like, if that's a term. Walking away, us three joined Dad in the lobby, and he took our things, taking them to the car. We then waited, and looked a little at the gift shop, the big one on the left, which was like a hallway and had many things to choose from, and was fairy large, I guess. When Dad came back, we were rushing to the elevator, which was through a break in the lobby in the back end by going through the wall and ticket counter, and went around down a hallway, just short of the bookstore with the boring and uh, teenager-like teen. There were many people, through a door and in a tight room, with a brown glittery rock, that was like a dome, connected to a kind of pinnacle stand. A Spanish-looking plump and small lady told us that we could touch the rock all we wanted; it was a real rock from inside the cave, but not to touch all the rocks actually in the cave. She also went over some of the rules, including very basic ones and some that made sense, a few that didn't. No need to go over them; I'm sure not many in this audience crave to follow rules all the time?

I felt the soft but bumpy texture of the rock, and it felt very unreal, like something you would find in a museum or kid's theater, but it was very smooth and kind of metal feel none the less. Then, these big elevators opened up, and they beckoned us down there, telling us to stay in the auditorium and not to yell loud down there, closed toed shoes and warm clothes, the basics of which we already knew. Then, taking us into the elevators, with vertical tiny slots and with the big Spanish-looking women in there, we went down, down, down, and she told us that it was like two minutes but 500 feet underground...or more. It actually didn't go to fast, but medium, I would put it at. My dog is dragging his butt on the carpet. Rocky, stop! Sorry, where were we? Oh, right, the cave. I looked outside, and saw some electric cords and outlets in the big chamber coming down, with a lot of staircases, concrete. It was not unlike when we were going up into the Arch of the West in St. Louis, except we were going down this time, not up. I felt a slight pain in my stomach as I felt that sensation when going down or up, riveting your lungs and making your headache happen. They had told us our ears would pop... and they did. I took a sip of water as the doors opened.

My eyes adjusted to the change in light, the more darker dimness of this chamber. It was a very big chamber, with an uneven ceiling, very high in fact, with bumps and black spots. To our right was a corral where wooden fences came into a circle, a post, and then a kind of uphill trail, with some more signs. To our left were circular stands with the blinds all lifted up, selling everything from tees to food, but you're only allowed to eat it in this lobby. This is the place where all of the tours start out, and where they all end. Some rangers, with the big beige hats, green jackets and khaki pants, told us to go to the restroom before the tour, because we wouldn't have a chance to go again. The restrooms were to the right and behind, down an ancient looking hallway, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. We all went, even Rebecca, and it went down, down, with twists, turns, alcoves, and a general brown, funnily with torches on each side. At the end of this downhill hike to the restroom, there were two choices: men's and women's. I chose men's, of course. It was like any public restroom, white, with a lot of stalls. After going, I joined up again. I really needed to go. A lady gathered all the people up, telling them to get inside the circle. I joined Mom and Dad and Rebecca, as Mom finished talking with some people.

A black haired, pretty young, a ranger, stepped up on a box facing the whole crowd. She stated her name was Anita, and pointed to another ranger who looked a little like her, just less acne and prettier, taller too. She said that Erin, who that was, would be her trailer, checking if people were behind her, and calling ever so often to say that nobody was lost. Usually there was a volunteer, for that job, she said, but not this time. I had a flashback of Mammoth Cave when Paul was our backup, an unlucky Englishman. She said to stay on the trails, don't touch all the rocks, and keep children at arms length. Also, to be sure to go to the restroom before the tour; we wouldn't have time to go to the restroom in the middle. Well, scratch that, she did have a plastic bag that a person could scurry off to and, well...go in, but once they did, they had to carry it and it was theirs'. To avoid the embarrassment, and the people staying away from you, and the whole awkwardness of it all, she said, please go to the restroom.

She went over some other things, the whole warm clothes and closed toed shoes thing, also for expectant or pregnant mothers not to come, stuff like that. Then, she asked for any questions. I asked why the place we were going was called The King's Palace? And she said that she would answer that later, but she didn't want to spoil it. Anita sounded kind of "I'm-so-smarty" in a way , and I hoped that she would end up being a good tour guide. She was nice enough, I supposed. And she was pretty good. Okay, passing some people with helmets and flashlights and ropes, I said hello to the cavers who she said were doing the mathematical equations and lines, showing what the cave looks like. She had earlier told us the geologic time period of Carlsbad Caverns, saying that air fluctuates in and out, like breathing, and you'll feel a breeze every so often, the water making holes that the air travels into. She was talking about the dynamics of the cave, what made it alive, and that we want it to stay for millions of more years, by not touching all the rocks. Okay. We started to walk, cameras and video cameras on the ready. The tour of Carlsbad Caverns had begun.

TO BE CONTINUED...(SEE "CARLSBAD CAVERNS: KING'S PALACE" FOR THE NEXT PART OF THE STORY. YOU DON'T WANNA MISS IT!)