Touring the Carlsbad Caverns

I'm happy to report that Uma and I survived the really high winds that swept through SE New Mexico yesterday and through to early this morning!  Even with her nose pointing into the wind, there were times went Uma the VRRV was rocking!

I woke to a nice sunrise:

Spent about 5+ hours touring the caverns today.  I elected to do the hike to the bottom self tour.  It's quite the place I must say!  There were other folks checking out the caverns as well but it wasn't crowded at all.

You transit through a touring trap location called Whites City as you turn onto NM Highway 7 to cruise the 7 miles to the national park:

The "Natural Entrance" to the caverns is about 1/4 mile or so from the visitor center.  You can also just take the elevator down at the visitor center to the lowest levels and hike your way back up.

I decided to let gravity help me along the way.  The caverns were apparently discovered back in the day when people saw swarms of bats flying out in the evening.

Not sure when these flights happen, I'm sure they're seasonal.  The place has an amphitheater for the viewing of these bats:

you can see the cave opening

It's quite the series of hairpin turns on the path down into the caverns.  Pretty nicely laid out and good grip on the surface of the path.  

It sure felt more than 1.25 miles to me, but then again, I also did the "Big Room" loop as well.

I brought my tripod and still, some of the shots just didn't come out in focus!   Still, I must warn you that plenty did come out...standby for stalactite overload.  Once my eyes adapted to the darkness, I didn't need my flashlight at all to navigate the path.

Temple of the Sun

A nice reflection in one of several small pools

The Silent Bell (I think)

The Chinese Theater

These caverns are the most extensively festooned with stalactites and stalagmites that I've seen!  Well worth a visit!  The pictures make the place look like it was lit up but it was really just spot lighting used throughout.  I just used long exposure settings throughout.  Just enough light, mostly, once your eyes adapt to make sure you can see the path and the sights.

Started at 9:35 AM (you do need reservations) and was back at camp by 2:00 PM.  I was bushed and rested the rest of the day away.

Learned a couple of things the hard way:  

Though the caverns are reported to maintain a temperature of 56°F (13°C), they feel warmer the deeper you go.  I had layered up to ride over there on my TW200 in 32°F (0°C) temperatures and found I had to shed layers about 1/3 of the way into the routes. 

Could have been because I was warm and slightly sweating; but I got a bit dehydrated over the course of the tour and was feeling slightly dizzy at the end.  I'm thinking perhaps the caverns can also dehydrate one, so bring water!  There were water fountains at the end, by the elevators, otherwise you have to bring it.

So nice having the elevators to take you back up the 750 feet you just went down into the caverns!

Windy Drive to Carlsbad, NM

Pretty much the entire southeastern portion of New Mexico was under a high winds advisory today.  It was going to snow again in the Las Vegas area so staying another day wasn't an attractive option to me.  

I wanted to camp in warmer locations, with NO snow on the ground you see.  

So I left the campground shortly before 7AM, with the sun just beginning to rise over the horizon to light the way.  The drive started off well, with no noticeable winds as I drove south.  The land is basically flat plains with very small rolling hills once in a while.

As I neared Roswell, NM though, the winds started to pick up.  Dust clouds would sometimes result in zero visibility as I drove through them; kind of like a whiteout except it was a brownout! Rather unnerving. Such times dictated turning off cruise control and enabling the four-way flashers to make sure traffic behind me saw me!

The winds and gusts got really serious south of Roswell, though it got a little less windy or at least less dust clouds as one approached Carlsbad

The first two BLM sites I'd planned on proved unreachable by Uma, luckily the last site did prove reachable and provides quite a bit of solitude due to sight distances involved.

As you can see, this part of New Mexico is basically flat plains.

I parked Uma with her nose to the wind and will not be putting out the slide out until after 7:00 a.m. tomorrow when the wind advisory expires.

The advisory warned of winds 35-50 mph with gusts to 75 mph in the plains.
My phone's weather app reported 35 mph winds with the highest gusts I saw being 55 mph! Though pointed into the wind, Uma the VRRV, still shook and rocked a bit throughout the rest of the day.

The winds ended up kicking up lots of dusts in my campsite's area, to the point where I couldn't see much past the access road I used to get there. I was sure glad of the early start for the day, as it would have been quite dangerous to ride in the dust clouds present in the late afternoon!

The wind should die down a bit by tomorrow morning, allowing me to ride Yagi, my TW200 the 11 miles or so to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Heading South for the Winter

Finally able to escape the still covered with snow landscape of the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area.

In the last few days, as I had the VRRV at home to prepare, I did get a few things ready on her for this trip.

The sand ramps have been repositioned from the top of the VRRV to the rear bumper; where they serve as support for the new telescoping ladder:

I made sure the ladder doesn't block the viewing of the right brake light/turn signal of course.

The above move caused me to move the storage bag for the gazebo to the front of the VRRV, just aft of the front cargo rack for Yagi, my TW200.

I found where the oil leak was coming from on Yagi.  The gasket for the left side crankcase cover had torn you see.  I suspect it was damaged when the engine was taken apart to replace the cylinder/head in Nevada.

As I didn't have a replacement gasket handy, I cleaned the surfaces off and applied some gasket making sealant for now.  A short test ride has revealed no further leaking from this cover.  I've ordered a new gasket of course and will replace it at the next oil change unless my temporary fix doesn't last long.

The above repair of course led to an oil change on Yagi since removing the crankcase cover leads to all the engine oil coming out.  A bit early since she wasn't due for a change till 22,000 miles but oh well.

I've also ordered replacement sprockets and chain for Yagi, as the teeth on the sprockets are showing enough wear to merit replacement.  Hopefully they're on hand when I next have to remove that crankcase cover; since that's involved in order to access the front sprocket!

Anyways, I hit the road today, leaving shortly before 8:30 AM and crossing into New Mexico 4 hours later.  I arrived at the Storrie Lake State Park near Las Vegas, NM and was at my campsite for the night by 3 PM.

It was in the low 30s by now so my time outside was limited.  Here's a look at the conditions on the South Loop.

Storrie Lake

The Class C in front of Umarang was the only

one in the south loop besides her at the time of the photo.

Sunset was pretty good tonight, and you can see another camper showed up for the night.

A Nice Museum and a Nice Meet Up in Vail, CO

Yesterday, Martha and I drove the Honda CR-V into the mountains, dealing with expected traffic on the way to Vail, CO.  Even on a weekday as this was, traffic was heavy.  Just way too many people in the Front Range of Colorado.

We were going for a lunch meet up with Martha's God-Mother and some of her kids and grandkids.

We got there a bit early (took about two hours driving time) on clear roads under partly cloudy skies.  So we decided after some wandering around that we'd check out the nearby Ski Museum.

The museum is basically two museums in one small building.  The side which displayed ski equipment through the years and Olympic ski memorabilia was "yawn, OK".

The other half of the museum is dedicated to the 10th Mountain Division of the US Army during WWII.  It was veterans from this division that would return to Vail and basically start the US Ski Industry.  

Nice museum, with a very well done film detailing the origins of the division, the training at Camp Hale in the mountains of Colorado, their fighting in Italy and later their return and work to start the US Ski industry.  If you're in Vail, this is something to see and it doesn't take a lot of time away from the slopes if you're skiing.

Some of the stuff that caught my eye:

The Ski Trooper

I've ridden to Camp Hale's location before: LINK here to see what is there nowadays.

This vehicle looks like fun...

So, we met up with the folks we were there to meet and lunched near their lodgings.  Pricey food, crowded conditions but very good company it turned out.

We spent about two hours over food and conversation, Martha and I rekindled our relationship with her God-Mother and daughter.  We met extended family, grandkids who were all adults now.  A good time was had by all, even me with my anti-social tendencies.

Becky, Martha, Una and I

Alexis, Alexa, Becky, Martha, Una, me, Bobby, Jake and Ken

The day had gone so well, there would be a price to pay of course.

We left a bit before 5PM in darkening conditions under now overcast skies.  Martha saw that google maps was warning of a slowdown enroute back to the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area.  It was at first a 49 minute delay and it swiftly became a much longer delay.

Interstate 70 eastbound was jammed up from just west of Georgetown I believe to Floyd Hill area before things cleared up.  We would creep along a few feet, wait for minutes, then creep along some more.  It was tedious and reminded us that it is now a mistake to go into the mountains anymore.

Not sure why there was so much traffic on a weekday, the only thing we could figure was that some school districts were still on holiday and families were taking in one more ski day trip in the mountains.  

Whatever it was, it also served as impetus to ready the VRRV for travels south.

I picked up the VRRV from storage and will prep it for travel over next couple of day.  We're supposed to have some light snow tonight and Sunday, so my escape window could be as early as Saturday, Sunday for sure.