Day 7 - Ft. Davis and Carlsbad Caverns

The weather today - sunny and hot, hot, hot ... again.  We began the day by spending 3 hours touring Ft. Davis, a restored army post that was used before, during and after the Civil War.  Due to its location in the desert, the fort is remarkably well preserved.

Most people are smart enough not to visit west Texas in the summer so there were very few visitors at the fort and we had a lot of personal attention from the rangers.  As a result we spent a lot of time walking around the fort learning about the life of a soldier on the frontier.  Needless to say, Joan completed another Junior Ranger workbook and got another Junior Ranger badge.  (Acutally, Audrey ought to be getting the badges because Joan has become her shadow.)

After lunch, we left Ft. Davis and headed north and slightly west towards Carlsbad Caverns (in New Mexico).  During the drive, the terrain flattened out and vegitation was sparse.  However, we saw a lot of oil wells, oil well service vehicles and oil well drill rigs.  The terrain didn't look much different after we entered New Mexico except that we gained an hour and we could begin to see large mountains on the western horizon.

We dropped our trailer at a campground in the town of Carlsbad and headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  We were apprehensive about what we might find because we had heard that the park had been evacuated and closed earlier in the week due to range fires.  The land leading to the caverns was almost completely burned out and once we entered the park it was evident that the fire had jumped the park entrance road.  Fortunately, the firefighters were able to stop the fire from burning the visitor center, cave entrance, and staff housing although the fire came right up to the edge of the visitor center parking lot and within a few feet of several park buildings.  So far, they say that the fire has burned about 25,000 acres in and around the park, and there are still some isolated fires.  There is still a strong smell of smoke in the air at the visitor center.

Although we arrived at Carlsbad Caverns in time for a ranger talk (about the fires and the caverns) and we watched the orientation video, we didn't have time to tour the caverns today so we are going back in the morning.  Tomorrow will be a busy day.  We need to get up early to make our tour through the cavern and then we have a long drive to Albequerque.

The forecast for tomorrow:  sunny and hot, hot, hot!  However, we will be 800 feet under the earth in a 56 degree fahrenheit cavern.  Right now, that sound like heaven.