25 October 2015, Sunday

We are off to Carlsbad this morning to find breakfast before going to
the caverns for our ranger guided tour at 10:30 am. We forgot how
difficult it can be to find breakfast on a Sunday morning in a small
town. Everything is closed except for Denny’s and IHOP. IHOP it is, as
it is on the way to the caverns.

Breakfast isn’t bad and we arrive in good time for our King’s Palace Tour. It
is very different from our ten person Wind Cave Tour in South Dakota. There are 52 of
us on this trip. Nonetheless, the underground formations are
fantastic. We are eager to explore further once the guided tour is
done. We return to the visitor center first to see some of the
exhibits there. We learn, not surprisingly, that the caverns figure
in the Apache origin story. We also learn that,  as at Wind Cave, it
was another 16 year old boy, Jim White, who was the first to enter and
explore the caves and to begin publicizing their existence to the
outside world.

O and I head out to the paved trail towards the natural cavern entrance. The
switchbacks, which begin above ground, go on seemingly forever as we
descend into the caverns. For a brief time, as we walk downwards,
there is a strange odor. We surmise it is bat guano.

We feel as if we have entered a fantasy world as we continue our
descent. I take many photos, sans flash, although my camera keeps
admonishing me to raise my flash. Once we have descended as far as
permitted we continue on the Big Room Tour. The Big Room is so large
that two entire US Capitol buildings could fit inside. These caves
were initially formed when sulfuric acid, presumed to be from
bacteria in deep deposits of oil and gas, dissolved the limestone and
formed layers of gypsum (hydrated calcium sulfate.) As the land
slowly rose, these vast empty spaces dried and then, as the rangers
say, decorated themselves over millions of years as carbonic acid
dripped down from above and slowly evaporated, leaving behind
stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, columns, pearls and popcorn.
About 10% of the caverns are still actively decorating.

After a late lunch we have time for a brief above ground nature walk. It is a brilliantly
sunny, but cool day. We see some new birds we will have to look up in
Sibleys. Now it is time to go to the amphitheater just outside of the
natural entrance for a ranger talk on bats to be followed, whenever
they decide it is time, by the evening’s exodus of anywhere from
200,000 to 500,000 bats from the depths of the cave.

As we sit listening to the ranger we can see flocks of cave swallows
overhead. Suddenly, with a loud whoosh, they all dive and disappear
into the cave and its surrounding rocks. As the ranger continues her
talk on the free-tail Brazilian (some say Mexican) bats, the bats begin
to emerge in ever increasing numbers. We have all been warned to
power off all electronic devices and to remain silent so as not to
disturb these creatures. The sound of thousands of bat wings emerging
is like a distant rushing stream. We have learned that the bats may
fly up to 100 miles in a night and reach heights of 10,000 feet. They
can consume half their body weight in insects. 

As we watch, a hawk swoops in and flies off with a bat in its talons. We
see it alight in a tree top to enjoy the delicacy (although O and I
agree there can’t be much nutrition in a few grams of bat.) The bat
exodus continues. At times another flock of swallows dives into the
cave. It seems impossible that there are no collisions. The bats
continue to pour from the cave entrance as it slowly becomes more
difficult to see them against the darkening cliff face. The watching human
crowd has thinned greatly. O and I finally stand up to
stretch our legs. We have been wondering about a new sound over our
heads – like thousands of tiny flags whipping in a stiff breeze. We
note the air outside the cave now has the same odor we noted as we
descended into the cave earlier today. The ranger is about to leave
and comes over to let us know. We walk out with her. She explains
that the second noise we are hearing is the sound of bats diving to
return to the cave, apparently having decided that the evening is too
cool to hunt insects. They will likely be migrating soon.

We drive back to camp under an almost full moon. What an amazing day!