Phantastic Carlsbad Caverns

Our visit to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park was one of the most memorable and exciting  experiences of the entire trip. The more than 100 limestone caves within Carlsbad Caverns  are outstanding and notable world-wide because of their size and the abundance, diversity and beauty of the decorative rock formations within. The lagest cave, called "Big Room", is accessible by hiking down a 1-mile trail with a vertical drop of 750 ft (230 m). It is about 4,000 ft (1.200 m) long and 255 ft (78 m) high at the highest point. An almost 2-mile long boardwalk along the perimeter offers incredible vistas to hundreds of phantastic crystal and rock formations. As I said on other occasions before, photos can only begin to give an idea how impressive these caverns are - nothing matches the live experience.


On the hike down

Entrance to the cavern



In the "Big Room"

By the way - picture taking down in the cavern is rather challenging: The caves are only dimly lit, requiring exposure times of 30 - 60 seconds and, consequently, a solid support for the camera (next time I am going to bring a tripod!). And the built-in flash carries to a distance of 10 ft. maximum.

 

This formation is called "Whale Mouth"

 

 

The "Chinese Theater"

 

 

 

Another area in the Big Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White Sands National Monument

Are you kidding me, snow in the Chihuahuan desert in New Mexico??

 

 

What looks like snow - not just on the pictures, but also in reality - is actually sand, but not made of silica, like usually, but consisting of gypsum crystals, chemically calcium sulfate. Several geological events had to come together to create this unique whim of nature, as is explained here:

 

 

We all were having a blast playing in that huge sand box that is made up by up to 60 ft high snow-white sand dunes.

 

Rolling down the steep dune slopes...

...is fun for all ages!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ

For a Western Movie fan like me, it was a no-brainer to pay a visit to Tombstone, the "mother of all western towns", only 60 miles south of Tucson. Tombstone was the place of the famous OK Corral shootout between the Earp brothers and "Doc" Holliday on one side and some leading figures of the "Cowboys", an infamous gang of cattle thieves and stage coach robbers, on the other side. Many of the original buildings, and of course the main street, are still there, although their purpose changed somewhat to tend to the needs of the tourists that nowadays are income-maker #1 for the town. In addition to browsing for souvenirs, we attended a re-enactment of the gunfight that is performed once daily.

The Earp brothers; the famous Wyatt is on the left side



 

...and their challengers

 

Tombstone's main street

 

About 20 miles south of Tombstone is the historic mining town of Bisbee. From 1880 to 1975, copper was being mined here; until 1950 in an underground mine and the last 25 years additionally in an open pit. The open pit mining became feasible by the development of heavy mining and earth moving equipment, and actually helped keeping the entire mining operations afloat, because the underground mine alone was not profitable enough anymore.

Like elsewhere, open pit mining does never leave an attractive landscape behind, but in the case of Bisbee, it is particularly unpleasant because it's so close to downtown.

 

Open pit copper mine in Bisbee, AZ

 

 

With the help of tourism, Bisbee flourishes now, but, of course, way less than at its peak times about 100 years ago.

 

Main street in Bisbee

Bisbee, AZ

 

 

The main tourist attraction in Bisbee is a tour of the underground mine which is offered several times daily.

 

 

Our tour guide was a great guy who actually worked in the mine until 1974, and he was able to tell us lots of little stories that filled the 1-hour tour with life and interest. In the picture above, he is explaining the use of that chest-like device, which actually was - the underground toilet. It's interesting to note that the miners obviously didn't mind using it in tandem...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tucson and the Sonoran Desert

From Sedona, we travelled about 240 miles south to Tucson and stayed there in a very nice campground in the Catalina State Park. Driving off the Colorado Plateau in southern direction, both climate and vegetation change slowly. Here is where the Sonoran Desert begins that extends over a large area in the southeast corner of the US and into northeastern Mexico. But only in a very limited part of the Sonoran - around Tucson - do the majestic Saguaro cacti grow (pronounced like 'Swhaaro'), namesake of a national park that is located to the east and west of Tucson. This national park was the main reason why we came to the area.
North of Tucson is Biosphere 2, an Earth system science research facility that was constructed in the late 70s as a large, enclosed "greenhouse" to study the feasibility of humans living off of farming without exchanging food, oxygen, carbon dioxide and waste with the external world. From 1981 to 1983, 8 people lived here in complete encapsulation (heating and cooling was accomplished from the outside by heat exchangers without cross-exchange of any matter). Oxygen production (and carbon dioxide consumption) was handled by plants that grew in five different "bioms": rain forest, ocean, mangrove wetland, savannah, and fog desert, in addition to the agricultural area that provided food for the inhabitants. The enclosed area of Biosphere 2 is over 3 acres (12.000 qm).

The 'pyramid' on the right picture houses the rain forest, pictured below.

The rain forest

The fog desert

The "landmark" of the Sonoran Desert:

...and up to 200 years old.

Saguaros can be 40-50 ft (12-15 m) tall...

Another beautiful cactus is the Fish Hook Barrel (also dubbed "mother-in-law seat")

A fruit bearing mother-in-law seat

The Sonoran Desert is one of my most favorite landscapes

The sun is setting over the campground

 

Travelling the Colorado Plateau to Sedona, AZ

Our next leg covered a good part of the Colorado Plateau as we travelled south from Moab to Sedona.

About two hours south of Moab, the San Juan river, a tributary of the Colorado, forms the famous "Gooseneck", a series of 5 narrow 180 degree turns that cut about 1,000 ft (300 m) deep into the Plateau over a period of about 50 million years. It created an unbelievable panorama - impossible to squeeze in one picture.

Western side of the Monument Valley

Our campground near Monument Valley

 Within a short hiking distance from the campground, we found this beautiful natural arch.

In our campground near Sedona

 

Like in Moab, Sedona offers a number of Jeep tours to interested tourists. However, as this photo shows, one should make sure the driver is skilled enough....



 

On a hike in Sedona, looking for the famous "vortexes" (we didn't find them...)

20 miles south of Sedona is the old (copper) mining town of Jerome. Once a striving mining community of over 15,000 people, the population shrank to a mere 500 after the mines were closed. Today, the town tries to profile itself as an art center and as the "largest ghost town in America".

 This building was one of 15 brothels in town - and the only one that survived the declining population and serveral large fires.