2020 Winter Camping Trip Day34-Carlsbad Caverns National Park

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day34, 2020/12/29

This was a jaw dropping experience. What a cave!

This day we went to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I didn't know about this park, but Mr.N had been there and recommended it. 

This park is good, because National Park pass covers the cave entrance fee. In contrast, Mammoth Cave National Park requires everyone to buy a ticket to go into a cave even if you have a National Park Pass. 

Natural Entrance

There are two ways to go down into the cave big room area. One is a natural cave entrance, and the other is with an elevator. We took the natural entrance. This is much more fun! You go down, down, down with the natural entrance. The left picture is 5 minutes walk from the entrance. In the twilight zone, animals use there as a shelter. One of them is ringtail cats. I didn't know about the animal, but I saw a picture on the sign. Very cute! Even the sign says, "Ringtail cats are the cutest mammals you've never seen." I can't agree more. They are active at night and they can easily move around in the very rocky cave. 

There are thousands of decorations in the cave. Each one is different shape and it never gets you bored. Many formations are categorized where there are and its shape. For example, if it is hanging from ceiling, it is called stalactite (contains "c" in the word because it forms from ceiling: or at least you can memorize that way). If the decoration is forming from ground it is called stalagmite (contains "g" since it comes from ground). Columns are the connected formation of stalactites and stalagmite. In addition to that, flowstone, soda straws, draperies..etc. Many other formations are found. Some distinctive decorations are named like "Giant Dome" or "Totem Pole".

BIG

In the left picture is one of the biggest decoration in the cave. They are really big: it is hard to imagine from picture. In my guess they are at least 30 meters high. This is must see in person. 

Basically these decorations are formed by thousands of water drops from ground into the cave. The water absorbed carbon dioxide from air and soil and drip into a cave. These can dissolve limestone and absorb basic ingredient, because the water with CO2 is acidic. Then, once they come in, the carbon dioxide evaporate. In this state the water no longer hold ingredient: this forms the decoration.

From ceiling

Another picture in the right is decoration that amazed me. What a shape. Beautiful formation I had never seen. 

I had a lot of pictures, but too many to post here! 

After we enjoyed a lot, exit time. This was insane. It was not allowed to trace back to the natural entrance. People are required to take elevator. The line was so long. At first it was because social distancing. I thought the line was long because one household at one elevator ride. However, later we found it was just a chaos. No sign how many people can be in the elevator. The line didn't have 6 feet distancing enforced. Carlsbad Caverns NP is doing very bad job. 

I sent an email to the National Park Service. The email is as below. I sent in 2021 January. As of June 2021 I still had no response. I guess they will never respond.

Dear Carlsbad Caverns National Park,

I have a big concern regarding your social distancing practice. 

I had an insane experience and felt extremely unsafe and uncomfortable.

On December 29th, 2020. I went to Carlsbad Caverns National Park and toured the entire cave. I hiked in around 9:30 a.m., and I truly enjoyed the cave. 

Around noon, I was ready to go back and joined the line for the elevator. 

Along the line, there is no single sign to make people follow social distancing. Therefore, a lot of people were not leaving 6 feet space between households. 

For example, the family behind me was less than 2 feet behind. Besides, children took off their mask and parents didn't make the children to enforce mask wearing. 

Not only them, but many other children didn't wear masks AND screaming. 

The line continued until 1 p.m. It took exactly 1 hour to get to the elevator. At the elevator, there was no single sign of how many people are allowed to enter in the elevator together, or how many households are allowed to be in the elevator together. I saw 3 households entering the elevator together. I entered the elevator just with my partner to follow social distancing practice. 

This was an extremely unorganized and chaotic process. If this is continued, COVID for sure will spread in the cave. 

To avoid the worse situation,

• Need a sign for the line to enforce social distancing
• Need 6 feet apart sticker on the floor for the line area
• Need clear instructions how many people/household can be in the elevator at the same time
• Need rangers or volunteers to make people quiet and enforce social distancing near the line area
• Really need to limit number of people who can be in the cave at the same time

I went to Mammoth Cave National Park in November of 2020. This is a good comparison example, because it is another cave touring national park. 

Mammoth Cave is doing well for social distancing. They limit the number of people to be in the cave at the same time. They have rangers every 0.2 mile in the cave.

The rangers not only explain about caves, but also help people keep social distance. 

I hope Carlsbad Caverns National Park immediately revises social distancing practice policy and I hope I won't see clusters emerging in the park. 

Best regards.