After a great day of hiking we took a short drive and stayed on some BLM land about 15 miles from Carlsbad. For those that don’t know BLM is Bureau of Land Management. This is all government land that comprises lots of the West. Much of it is used for grazing. You can camp for free. We found a great spot on a hill overlooking the desert. The kids found a small abandoned fort made of stone and worked on improving it by moving rocks to expand the walls. We all saw some great stars and headed to bed early. Here is a shot from the beautiful sunrise.
After the sunrise we drove down the dirt road from our BLM campsite. We thought all was good until Brent heard a “whallup” sound. We pulled over and found a baseball sized rock wedged in between our dually tires. After 3o minutes of trying to knock it out with a hammer, axe, drill , chisel, etc, etc we drove slowly into Carlsbad National Park. We decided to walk down the natural entrance.
Here is our happy Mei on our way into the cave.
We saw some beautiful structures inside the cave including some huge columns, delicate soda straws and mightly stalagtites. The kids were amazed by the size of some of the rooms.
Once we got as far as possible into the cave our smallest boy, Makai, uttered the famous words “I gotta poop”. Brent grabbed him and they hustled back to the main part of the cave to the restroom. Eva, Marco and Mei enjoyed a leisurely walk and enjoyed some sibling love.
After the end of the cave all three kids finished their second Junior Ranges badges of the week and we headed back East.
We needed to get East as fast as possible for a doctor appt on Jan 12 in Atlanta but had to make sure we found a campsite that had cable. This was so Brent and Marco could watch the BCS National Football Championship game between Georgia and Alabama. Notice Marco’s sweatshirt.