Carlsbad Caverns, Kartchner Cavers, World of Concrete, The Wave

Saturday Jan, 31

                I was up early and waited an hour for the visitor center to open. I made some food and cleaned up the car. I signed up for a ranger lead tour through a part of the cave, but it didn’t start for a few hours. So I watched the video and took the elevator down to the main part of the cave. Here you can walk around place called the Big Room. This is a huge cavern 750 feet below the surface. You could fit 6 football fields inside this chamber, and it is roughly in the shape of a cross. I always love being the first one on a trail in the morning and the same applied here. I was down here with only 3 other people. It really gives you a good perspective when looking at these amazing features. The formations that happen inside a cave over millions of years are far beyond me to describe, and the pictures I take don’t do justice. I walked around the cave until the guided tour started. Now I walked through a different part of the cave with about 50 other people all shining flashlights and using “outside voices”. The information was really great from the ranger, but I could have done without the people. After the tour I hiked out the natural entrance back to my car. I drove south about an hour to an adjacent national park right across the Texas state line called Guadalupe Mountains Nat Park. I talked to the visitor center and quickly started the hike to Hells Staircase. You follow a wash up into the mountains for a few miles. Its started to rain but it wasn’t that bad so I continued hiking past hells staircase and followed the wash until it forked and I turned back. My plan was to stay the night here and hike around tomorrow. But I wanted to get on the road. So I drove southwest to Kartchner Caverns State Park AZ. Robert Yanasak and I were here last year but arrived too late to see the cave.

Sunday Feb, 1

                The sits above the surrounding landscape, almost on the edge of a bowl. It used to be a lake, today it was filled with fog and the morning was cloudy. I sat right in the gap between the fog and clouds. It made for a very cool sight when the sun snuck through for about 30 minutes. When the park opened I signed up for both tours. This cave system is completely different. It’s only a few feet below the surface and as untouched of a cave as you can find. The 2 guys who found this cave saw the bigger picture from day one. Everything they did was geared towards the conservation of this cave. They took the same trails every time and were extremely careful with their exploration. All the workers were super excited, they have received a lot of rain over the past few weeks and this is the wettest they have seen the cave. This is also a warm cave, unlike Carlsbad which is a constant 56 degrees Kartchner is in the upper 70’s with 100 percent humidity. No cameras are allowed through the cave but I will look up a picture of the main feature, Kubla Khan. After this cave I called my friend mike and drove up to phoenix to watch the Super Bowl at his place. Mike lives with his girlfriend Nichol, her son Landen, and mikes daughter Mel. Mike and I grilled up some chicken and washed it down with the other case of spotted cow I brought down. They also have a very nice garden and Nichol cooked some fresh veggies. 

Monday Feb, 2

                Mikes refrigerator broke over the night so the house was a bit chaotic in the morning. Mike and I went to rent a truck and pick up a new one. After we took care of that mike went to work and I made the drive through the dessert over to Vegas.

Tuesday Feb, 3

                This is the first day of the World of Concrete exhibit that I attended for work. I drove over to Treasure Island hotel but couldn’t check in. So I took the shuttle to the Las Vegas Convention Center and went to the first class I was signed up for. After that I roamed around for the rest of the day. This place is crazy to see. You can buy anything from a box of screws to concrete trucks to mining equipment.  After the show I went out to dinner and then hung out in the room.

Wednesday Feb, 4

                World of Concrete for the day

Thursday Feb, 5

                World of Concrete then checked out and drove to Kanab UT. 

Friday Feb, 6

                There is a hike I’ve been trying to do sense I started traveling called The Wave. They only allow 20 people to go a day, 10 are from an online lottery system and 10 are from the lottery held at the visitor center every morning. It being Friday they hold the lottery for 3 days. So 30 people were going to be chosen. Almost 70 people showed up. I was number 16, they called 14,15,17,and 18. I didn’t get chosen, but I decided to just go anyway. I looked up the gps coordinates and went for it. Turns out I hiked this same area before, but got stuck in a hole for almost an hour. Not this time! I did hike way off the normal route but I made it. It looks like the stone was swirling around in elliptical circles as it was hardening. There was a volunteer ranger standing here and he asked if I had I pass, I said of course. Then he started talking about all the great pictures he took. He showed me an area to hike around to see a few other features. I started off, there was a tall peak that overlooked everything around and I decided to try to climb up that. The view from the top looking down was spectacular. It gives the place a whole different feel. It took a little while to make it down then I started hiking to a neat spot I saw from the peak. It was getting too difficult to get to and I figured it would be good to get out of here before the ranger had time to look up my car. This time I followed the trail some of the way back, but I liked using my gps and just going off trail back to the parking area. I followed animal trails up and down little ravines. I had to drop down about 50 feet right at the parking lot, and sure enough the ranger is walking out exactly the same time I am. And he’s parked next to me. I didn’t say anything just hopped in, backed up, waved, and took off. I was torn between staying up here by Utah or going back down to mikes for the weekend. I could get to mikes by 9 pm, and that sounded pretty good to me. Mike and I went to a nearby bar for some whiskey and beers.

 Inside Carlsbad Caverns

 The Chandelier

 the Orchestra

 Hiking around Guadalupe Mountains National Park

 Hells Staircase

 Cool trees

Kubla Kahn column in Kartchner Caverns, not my picture

 Northern Coyote Buttes

 The Wave

 View from top of the peak

Last days in Florida, Big Bend Nat Park

Friday Jan, 23

                This morning I grabbed breakfast at a hotel then spent the day driving around the Everglades. At night I drove down to Key Largo to grab a drink with my friend Stefani.

Saturday Jan, 24

                Saturday I drove up to Orlando to meet up with my cousin Ben. He had to work until late so I pretty much just sat in the car watching shows on my computer. Around 10 I went to the restaurant Ben works at. The place is called Dexters, and he cooked me up a delicious grouper dinner. This really hit to spot, you can’t beat the fish down here. I haven’t seen Ben in years, so we grabbed some beers when he got off work. He took me to a few of his watering holes before going back to his place.

Sunday Jan, 25

                In the morning we walked around a really cool weekly market they have next to a lake. We walked around the city some more and grabbed some gyros. He also had to work today so I relaxed at his place watching Netflix. Later on we grabbed a beer, but I wasn’t feeling the best and became super tired. So soon made it back to his place.

Monday Jan, 26

                Monday I had to drive to Sarasota to do a blood test for life insurance, I should have taken care of it before I left but I didn’t want to deal with it. From here I drove through the Everglades back down to Key Largo for some kayaking through mangrove tunnels with Stefani. I wanted to get started on the drive west so I drove back up towards Tampa. I dropped off a case of spotted cow, a beer only in Wisconsin, for my cousin’s fiancée’s brother.

Tuesday Jan, 27

                Here’s where it gets boring, I drove west

Wednesday Jan, 28

                I drove west

Thursday Jan, 29

                I drove west, and made it Big Bend National Park. This is an amazing national park with a ton to offer. It’s right on the border of Mexico along the Rio Grande. It’s the only national park with an entire mountain range inside it, the Chisos Mountains. At the bottom it’s a dessert, at the top it’s a pine forest. The top gets twice as much rain as the dessert below. I did a ranger guided hike where he was really knowledgeable and explained a ton about the park and surrounding land. After the hike he talked to me about going into Mexico, there is a border station in the park and you can go to a small village across the river. I planned on doing that tomorrow. After the days in the car I needed to clean up, so I went over to the hot spring. It’s actually an old building that fell apart and the hot spring flooded the foundation. It sits right in the Rio Grande River and the temptation was too strong. I swam across the river just to be an illegal immigrant for a minute. 

Friday Jan, 30

                I was up early with a lot of things planned to do. First I drove the scenic drive to the west end of the park. Here is one of the main reasons this place became a park, the Santa Elena canyon. If I planned it out better I would have kayaked through the canyon, but instead I did the short hike. It’s a huge, 1000 foot wall that is split by the Rio Grande River flowing through. The size is hard to take it all at once. The next place I hiked was around a few old houses of the farmers lived in before it was a park. From here I did another hike to a spring, more like a pool of bad water. But I was able to follow the wash up into the mountains for a ways. Finally I drove to east side to the park for the border crossing. You pay $5 for a boat ride across the river then walk a quarter mile to the town. It’s somewhat sad to see, the place is dirt poor. A resident offered to be my guide and I accepted. Little kids run up to you asking you to buy their little trinkets. We walked around the town then stopped in the bar. I figured I'm in Mexico, I should have tequila. They also had a tequila type drink made from a different plant called sotol. We grabbed an overpriced lunch then I check out the store. Nothing I really wanted, but I did buy some vanilla. I wish I had another day to spend in the park, but I had to be in Vegas for a work convention on the 2^nd. So I started north. Leaving the park there is a border patrol station. And sure enough the dog barked. So I pulled aside and they had to search everything. Right before they started taking everything out one of them says to me “if there is anything in the car you have to tell me now, if you don’t and I find something it’s a federal issue.” All I said back “and if you don’t find anything, you owe me a beer.” He never did pay up on that beer, but I was just happy to be done with that. I drove up to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

 Some rare bird the ranger told me about

 Big ass millipede

 Big Bend National Park

 Hot spring and the Rio Grande River

 Santa Elena Canyon

 Mule Ears

 Part of the hike to the spring

 Mexican village