At sunset yesterday, the winds were really whipping the dust up into the air, and making the visibility very low. We could hardly see across the street at the campground. This morning, we could see far and wide again, as the dust had settled. We visited Carlsbad Caverns again and took the "Historic Left Hand Tunnel Tour," a 2 hour guided tour with 15 people using only candle lanterns for light. It was a really neat experience to see the caves close to the way James White did when he first explored them. It was a very different perspective than the lighted sections of the caverns, your mind is really left to wonder a lot more about what is around the next turn or how deep that pit is... We left our campsite in Whites City, and drove a little less than three hours to Bottomless Lakes State Park.
The drive took us primarily through dry areas, but we passed through a town called Artesia that had many farms. We discovered that the town is aptly named for the ground water from the nearby mountains and is forced up near the surface in this area. There were numerous pecans groves, and we were surprised to discover that this is prime dairy country. When we arrived at the park, we walked a short trail along the shores of the Bottomless lakes. These lakes were formed when a series of sinkholes collapsed and filled with water. This allowed for a really unusual mixture of biomes in a very small area, from wetlands with salt and fresh water, to dessert. We had a beautiful view of "El Capitan" from the campground.
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| Bottomless lake, it is formed from a spring but is salt water. |
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| sunset |
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