Carlsbad Caverns Galloway style

So Jack's parents came for a visit over the 4th of July weekend. It was nice to have familiar faces out here when everybody we knew was evacuating for the LA fire and headed off to different places. We were starting to feel a bit lonely and left behind and weren't sure what to do with ourselves with both of our jobs being canceled for a week! Thursday afternoon we headed down to ABQ to pick them up from the airport and then we were off on our adventure to southern New Mexico. It was about a 4hr drive to Carlsbad and we passed through Roswell, NM on our trip and made sure we kept our eyes out for UFOs! :) (click pictures to enlarge)

Gary and Jennie scared of being in Roswell!

Jack and Gary ready to head down into the Mines of Moria Carlsbad Caverns :)

Just call him RG - Ranger Gary.

Ranger Jack :)

Ranger Becky...just doesn't have the right ring to it.

The King's Palace...back in the 20's and 30's they would bring people down to go ballroom dancing here...that's why the floor is so smooth.

Do you see the witch's broom?!

A cave pool, so still, there was no movement!

We were the crazy ones who took the elevator DOWN into the caverns and decided to hike UP the 1200 feet! This was a beautiful sight!

From the outside looking in you would never believe what you would find down there...amazing.

On our way to White Sands, NM...it was a bit hot outside. Didn't snap the picture of the 104* temp we saw as well.

So after spending the morning and afternoon in the caverns we decided to head over to White Sands, NM. We had a blast at Carlsbad and were in so much awe of the beauty of the cave. Fun, interesting fact...back in the 1890s a cowboy named Jim White (16 years old) was out surveying a fence line around dusk when he saw what he thought to be a big cloud of smoke coming from the mountains. He rode his horse a few miles over to see where the fire was coming from and discovered that it wasn't smoke but it was actually a large swarm of bats flying out of a cave in the mountains. The next day or so he decided he wanted to explore this cave and with a 60ft rope he had on hand he lowered himself into the cave. From that point on he traversed the cave numerous times, leading many explorations and worked as a park ranger in the caves until he died in 1946 at the age of 63.