ZR-1 Corvette Road Trip to the Southwest and San Diego

[QB93Z]

In many areas the softer layers of rock wear away faster and the result is balancing rocks.














We hiked out into the rocks to an area called The Grotto and had fun climbing on the rocks:







We got back on I-10 and drove to Deming, New Mexico.


Jim

[QB93Z]

Originally Posted by Jmu1

Howdy y'all, I see your not far from El Paso, Tx. I'm not sure when you will be here or if you were going to just drive through but if the schedule works out it would be nice to meet you folks. - Joseph

We have changed our route to visit White Sands National Monument so we won't be near El Paso. We plan to come back to El Paso on a future trip. I hope we can see you then.


Jim

[Jmu1]

Ok, have a good time at white sands, we always had fun there when I was a kid. From there you might consider running through Ruidoso. It's very close with a lot of small shops and small meuseums. When your future travels do bring you through far west texas I can at least point you in the direction of great watering holes and good Mexican food! Happy trails and be safe.

[QB93Z]

On Day 26 we left Deming, NM early and drove east to White Sands National Monument. Along the way, we had to stop in Las Cruces for a photo of the worlds largest Chile at the Big Chile Inn:





From Las Cruces, we crossed the mountains and drove to the White Sand area:








We drove into the sand dunes on the Park access road:










to be continued.....

[QB93Z]

One of the common plants in the desert is a Soaptree Yucca:







The Soaptree Yucca has an interesting adaptation to the desert. The tall stem with the flowering portion at the very top allows the plant base to be completely covered with sand as the dunes shift:





We found this Yucca that was almost all buried:





to be continued........

[QB93Z]

We drove another 3 hours southeast to Carlsbad, NM to visit Carlsbad Cavern National Park:





The cavern is the largest cavern in North America. The cavern can be accessed by walking about a mile and 800 feet down under ground or by a 750 foot elevator. In the cavern there is about 1.2 miles of paved paths.







The cavern is amazing. It is hard to find words to describe the massiveness of the cavern. The wide variety of formations in the cavern is astounding. Being deep underground, there is no natural light so all of the lighting to allow safe sightseeing is installed to highlight features but maintain the look and feel of a cave.


A feature I have not seen in other caves is the Popcorn Stalagmites. The process that creates them is not known:





It was hard to photograph the cave features but here are some samples:











to be continued.......

[QB93Z]

After exploring the Cavern, we had dinner and made our way to the outdoor amphitheater to see the bats swarm out of the cavern at twilight. We waited for the event and then a thunderstorm moved in and we had to leave. So we missed the bats.


On the way back to our hotel in Carlsbad, we were treated to a beautiful sunset:





Jim

[XfireZ51]

Jim,

Couple of questions:

1. Isn't Chile a country?

2. Find any Corvettes in the cavern?

3. How did u find that stunning sunset?

As always, great journal. U guys should have a show on PBS 😉

[QB93Z]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

Jim,

Couple of questions:

1. Isn't Chile a country?

2. Find any Corvettes in the cavern?

3. How did u find that stunning sunset?

As always, great journal. U guys should have a show on PBS 😉

1. Spell checker didn't understand what I was typing.


2. I was thinking about sink holes as we were walking through the cavern, but, no Corvettes.


3. The beautiful sunset was enhanced by thunderstorms to the north and south of us as we drove back to Carlsbad.


And thank you.


Jim

[QB93Z]

Day 27 - We drove from Carlsbad, NM to Santa Fe to visit my brother and his family.


We drove north on US-285. Traffic was light and we made good time:





We stopped in Roswell to catch up on the latest Aliens:





We drove to the plaza in Santa Fe and spent some time shopping and looking around the vibrant and active downtown markets:








Jim