Bat Flight

Last night I worked the bat flight. What's a bat flight? That's when approximately 250,000+ Mexican Free-tailed bats exit the natural entrance of the cave. They do it nightly, around dusk and head down towards the Pecos River. It's an amazing sight to observe the bats as they fly in mass out of the cave.

There is an amphitheater near the entrance where a program is held while the visitors watch. The weather was beautiful - clear skies, a slight breeze although a bit warm, but hey, it is July! We had a big crowd, probably close to 700 people to watch.

The bats started coming out of the cave at 7:55PM. The stream of bats was steady and thick as the sun went down. The bats continued their exit and the darkness began to settle in when I was surprised by a full moon starting to rise. It was a spectacular sight, one which I couldn't capture on camera. Due to the bats echolocation abilities, no cameras, cell phone or any other electronics are allowed in or around the amphitheater. It interferes with their echolocation and you certainly don't want to piss off a quarter million bats... do you?

Bats are an important part of our ecosystem. The bats here in Carlsbad eat moths and other bugs. Some bats prefer mosquitoes. Other bats help by pollinating flowers, their guano (poop) is a great organic fertilizer. If you haven't seen bat flight, I encourage you put it on your bucket list. Hope to see you there!

VALHere is a picture from the parks' website.

Chihuahuan Desert?

It's very green here. To be honest, it doesn't look like a desert at all. Taking up portions of NM, TX and Mexico, normally the Chihuahuan Desert gets ten inches of rain a year. I think they've had at least that in the last two months and its still raining! The locals have commented how pretty it looks. When we first got here in May it was rather brown. The temperatures are under 100 again - hopefully the temperature will remain cooler than normal.

The bad news is we've had a lot of thunder and lightning which means no hiking in the mountains. Today we drove to Hobbs, NM. A small town east of us, near the TX border. They offer a little more shopping than Carlsbad. Did find a few things we wanted for the RV, and some catnip seeds for the cats (very spoiled cats). Normally I don't have a green thumb, but maybe we'll get lucky and the catnip will grow. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The sky to the east and south is black, the wind is kicking up so more rain is likely coming. Maybe we'll get a break tomorrow and we can get out and hike before I have to go back to work on Monday.

More soon.

VAL & JOHN

Smokey the Bear

Originally a mascot to teach kids around the world the dangers of forest fires. The bear came to life in 1950 when a bear cub was found in the Capitan Mountains with burned paws after a 17,000 acre forest fire. Come on, you know you remember the story! I knew about the Smokey the Bear story (I was even a Smokey the Bear Jr. Forest Ranger). What I didn't know until this week was the Capitan Mountains are in New Mexico, about two hours northwest of Carlsbad.

Today we drove up to Ruidoso, NM to get up into the mountains. A cute little town that we will return again on a cooler day (it was hot even up there today). On the way back we passed the Smokey Bear Park, where Smokey was buried in 1976. Of course we had to stop. Smokey lived a long life, and died of old age after living most of his life at the National Zoo in Washington DC. A cute little state park that shares the history of the bear and the world wide phenomenon the little fellow caused.

There's been quite a few forest fires in the state already this year. The recent rains from Tropical Storm Alex earlier this month helped squelch the fire season, but when the temps regularly hit 100+ degrees it doesn't take long to dry out the forest. Thought it was a good time to remind our friends, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews about fire safetly and not to play with matches!

Remember only YOU can prevent forest fires. Let's make Smokey proud...

Val & John

Hi Everyone,

Been slacking, I know. When I have time to blog, John doesn't always have pictures ready to go. I've got a few pics John took and a brief geology lesson to go with it...

250 million years ago this area was covered by an inland sea. When the sea dried up, the reef it left behind a massive reef, which eventually was uplifted by tectonic plates. The limestone rock which was eroded by hydrogen sulfide (the same reason the water around here is AWFUL). What it was good for was created caves under the mountains. There are over 100 caves in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The pictures John has taken are of the Permian Trail. People come from all over the world to study the Permian Reef. Here are a few pictures John took while I was hard at work in the cave! :)



Never give up a good opportunity for a shoe shot!





This picture was taken on the way back from our trip to El Paso TX last week. There was a storm over Guadalupe Peak, which was the peak we hiked to on 7/4/10.

That's all for now.

Val & John

It's a Small World

No, I'm not talking about my mother's favorite ride at Disney World. The other day I was leading the Kings Palace tour at the caverns. I mentioned during the tour that I was originally from NJ. After the tour, I was talking with one of the participants when he asked where I lived in NJ. I told him from the Woodbridge area and he mentioned he lived in Flemington.

Next, he bent down and read my name badge. Glowinski is not the most common name in central NJ, and he said he had a friend named 'Steve' with the same last name. Who would expect in a group of 56 visitors to Carlsbad Caverns that one of them would know my brother-in-law?! So Steve, if you're reading the blog, your friends the Stone's said 'Hello'! :-)

It never ceases to amaze me, even as I'm thousands of miles from home (in FL and even NJ) that this world truly is a small one. I wonder who else I might meet this summer...

More soon,

VAL

4th of July!

We've had a lot of rain for the past week. There's been a lot of flooding in areas, but the usually brown desert is looking greener than I've ever seen it. Quite a contrast from only a few weeks ago when the temperatures were constantly in the 100's. It's only the beginning of July, so we realize the hot triple digit temperatures will be back all too soon, but we took advantage of the cooler days and decided to go hiking.

Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in TX, at 8.700 feet. Only ten miles south of NM, we decided to head south for the 4th of July. The trail is 8.4 miles long (round trip) and you gain a heart pumping 3000 feet. Since the weather was supposed to be cloudy most of the day, and cook (low 80's) we decided to take the hike.

Shortly after we began the hike, the cloud cover diminished and the blue skies began to welcome us. To be honest, I would have preferred the clouds, at least for the first mile or so which feels like it's straight up! Despite the obvious change in weather, we continued onward and upward.

It didn't take long before we had great views all around us. To the east, you could see the plains of TX, to the west, the mountains of Guadalupe National Park, and to the north you could almost make out Carlsbad, NM. The hike up took us almost three hours. Near the top we noticed thousand upon thousands of lady bugs! Never saw so many in my life!

Here are a few of the pictures. Notice the blue skies... By the time we finished it must have been close to 90 degrees, but we did make it to the top - our second summit of 2010!!! :-)


John and I at the top of Guadalupe Peak.


Looking towards the south and a view of El Capitan.


The view to the north.


Another view from the peak.


The hike down took about two hours - tough on the knees and thighs. John has a couple of blisters on his heals. Other than that it was a great hike and a memorable 4th of July. Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July.

More soon.

VAL & JOHN