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Thursday, July 2, 2007
Yesterday, 1 March 2007 I toured the Carlsbad Caverns, near White's City, New Mexico.
I have wanted to visit the Carlsbad Caverns ever since I first saw the 1959 movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" starring James Mason and Pat Boone. I had heard that the below ground scenes were filmed in the Carlsbad Caverns and if you ever saw the movie you know why I had to visit.
I was not disappointed! The Carlsbad Caverns are absolutely spectacular! A must see! In fact I have been rating my visits to various destinations with star ratings of 1 to 5. Other 5 star visits I have made were Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon and others. Well I will be doing some reprogramming on this site to accommodate a 5 Star Plus rating because of the Carlsbad Caverns.
The Caverns are located 750 feet below the visitors center and is a mild 56 degrees year around. Of course there is no wind so it is very comfortable. The big cavern which is where I visited is the size of about 15 football fields with a ceiling height of nearly 200 feet. Until the arrival of man it was in total darkness. The National Park Service has created paved pathways through out and most of the path way is wheel chair friendly so it is an easy walking path.
The Caverns are very tastefully lighted with no direct lighting. The rock formations are nothing short of spectacular. There are literally thousands and thousands of stalagmites and stalactites.
I cannot begin to describe what I saw so I will be adding pictures I took elsewhere on this web site in the places visited report very soon.