Carlsbad Caverns- Kings Room Tour

On our way out to Phoenix for Thanksgiving, we stopped at Carlsbad Caverns. It is a beautiful example of hidden grandeurs in our earth... we spent about 6 hours there that day. We first went on a guided tour of the Kings Room, and then came back up for lunch and walked back down with the self guided audio tour. The kids probably hiked about 5 miles that day at least with all the walking, but they really didn't complain about it because there was so much to see.

Kings Room Tour:

The dark black marks on the rock are lantern burn marks. Early explorers of the cave would make a burn mark on the wall to help them know the path back out of the cave.

Those teeny tiny stalagtites are about 80 years old! They know this because this tunnel was blasted through to connect two of the cave's rooms about 80 years ago. Imagine how old the larger stalagtites must be!

Hey the rock looks like a tooth! This formation is actually called the shy elephant... because someone thought it looked like the back end of an elephant... but we thought it should be called molar because it looks like a tooth!

If you look closely you can see the reflection of the walls in the water. This is a pond 745 feet underground. :)

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THE NEWTON'S

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