9 Feb 07 El Paso, TX to Pecos, TX

  Leaving El Paso was easy – in so many ways. Not a place I plan to return to. Also, we were on the road leading directly to the Carlsbad Caverns, our next destination.

 On the way we passed through the Guadeloupe Mountains National Park. At one place we stopped for a few photos and at another a short walk through desert vegetation ( with labels ) to the ruins of an old stage coach stop on a transcontinental run. We arrived at the caverns shortly after noon and were down in the caverns, about 700 feet below the surface soon afterwards. The first thing we did was a self-guided tour of the “Big Room” area. It took us about an hour of walking at a good pace.

 The caverns were simply amazing – all kinds of formations of stalactites, stalagmites and pillars, curtains, drinking straws and large accretions of materials in crazy shapes. There are huge galleries of open space, both up and down from the pathways.[ the space is large enough to contain 3 football fields ] The second part was a guided tour of “Kings & Queens” chambers. Our guide/ranger was really good and explained many of the curious formations as well as the general creation of the caves. At one point, all light was extinguished for a few minutes and we experienced total darkness. Very eerie. Then we were all as still as possible for total silence. We could hear dripping and later located the source right in front of us. The lowest point of the tour was 830 feet below the surface. All told, we were underground for 3 hours. The only thing we missed was walking down from the surface, because we were short of time. [ because of the guided tour start time ]. When we left there, we set out cross-country. In 30 miles across desert we saw no houses, only one car, perhaps 6 cattle, one roadrunner ( meep – meep! ) and many non-operating oil well pumps. As we got closer to Pecos we saw more working pumps, a few cars, but many abandoned houses and other buildings. Once we got to the edge of Pecos we saw the Walmart and wondered if that had anything to do with it. Checked into a motel and will go looking for food soon. Later: we found an interesting little cantina with no other patrons and enjoyed an unusual dining experience: Mexican for Lar and a hamburger for Jan. [ I was afraid to do Mexican in Juarez but this was good ]

All Photos 9 Feb 07