Adventuring with Amelia

Going to blog out of order of our day today. The Carlsbad Caverns deserves to be first, even though it was the 2nd National Park we went to today (more on that later).

First let me say, strollers are not typically allowed down in the Cavern. However, it is very wheelchair accessible and they allow strollers and wheelchairs down for those with disabilities.

DJ booked timed-entry tickets last night for 1:30-2:30 pm today. The guy at the check-in counter didn’t even hesitate or make a deal out of Amelia and her stroller. (Provided, Amelia was looking quite tired as you will see in the photos and was kinda hunched over, looking less then her prime sassy-self, which likely helped).

The elevator down brings you down at 9 miles an hour (going up it’s 11 MPH) and we needed a park ranger to “break” the revolving door down so we could pass though. Interestingly, it’s a matter of pushing one of the sections apart so your left with two normal 1/4ths and a side that is 1/2 open. Hopefully that makes sense (?) as those resolving doors usually have 4 spots for people to walk in.

Upon entering the cavern, the ranger at the bottom showed us the “help” call button to press to get assistance to get us back to through the revolving doors. Carlsbad Caverns gets an A+++ for being accommodating and not making a deal of us bringing Amelia down in her stroller. We greatly appreciated not being judged or questioned. They were all 100% ok and on board with her needing it without us having to go into great detail and it was refreshing.

This cavern was HUGE! The “Big Room” is insane and it doesn’t photograph well to show the shear size, plus it goes on and on forever! For a point of reference, we got Amelia 1/2 mile in on their trails before we turned around to go back to the elevator. She had perked up and was getting a bit sassy, which meant she wasn’t really wanting to sit in her stroller. Once out of her stroller… she wanted to explore, climb, and touch things. So Amelia and I opted to quickly walk back to the elevators to head back upstairs before we caused any sort of problems.

This kid! I can’t decide which of my kids is sassier some days. DJ and Jackson continued on another .3 miles from where Amelia and I turned around and went to see the “bottomless pit.” Apparently it goes down another 140 feet, the cavern was already about 750 feet below ground level… however you drive up a side of a mountain/big hill to start… so hard to know exactly where it’s at underground. It was about 56° in the cavern and stays that temp year-round.

One thing is for sure, it’s absolutely gorgeous!

The lighting definitely helps make everything seem more magical and stunning.

You can tell by these photos how wide and well built the trails/path are down in the cavern. There was enough room to have the stroller and to pass people/ walk past the stroller.

I literally took gobs of photos in the 1/2 hour Amelia and I were down there. It was just stunning. I tried to not post too many on here, but you’re here and reading this, so whatevs… more cavern photos!

And like millions of these were above our head at one point… YIKES!

Amelia was a happy little camper back in her camper after the cavern. We waited for the boys to get back, which they finished up and got back to us about 45 minutes after we started to leave the cavern.

Alright, backtracking a bit… we were quite efficient and motivated today. We got up and pull-out of our campsite just before 8:15 am! We headed to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, which makes that the 2nd new state we have been to on this trip, and Guadalupe Mountains NP as our #20 National Park and Carlsbad Caverns NP as our #21 National Park we have gone to… yep applies to Jackson and Amelia too for the NP count!

Literally all we did at Guadalupe Mountains NP was visit their visitor’s center, buy some stickers from the gift shop, and ate lunch in the camper in the parking lot. There isn’t much except for hiking trails at the park. You can’t even drive around on a scenic drive. So, we settled for our quick stop with lunch and headed onwards to Carlsbad Caverns NP for the more exciting part of our day as mentioned above.

After both Guadalupe Mountains NP and Carlsbad Caverns NP, we took off for our campsite at the KOA in Carlsbad, NM. It will be out last night in New Mexico for this trip and we will be in Texas for the next 3(?) nights. This is a KOA Journey, so nothing too crazy or special. FYI- I believe there are 3 ratings of KOA… 1- Journey, which have less amenities and activities and are closer to interstates, 2- Holiday, which are made for you to spend your entire vacation at and not have to leave, and 3- Resort- which is more fancy pants or something? Not sure, we haven’t stayed at a KOA Resort.

We did dinner (tried some vegan hot dogs), used the showers here, and did 2 HUGE loads of laundry in their big industrial machines. I felt quite smart as I loaded our overly stuffed laundry bag onto Amelia’s stroller to cart it over to their laundry room and back.

I need to wash Amelia’s med syringes and GO TO BED! It’s been a fun and amazing couple days start to the trip. We are definitely prioritizing going to bed early though and haven’t had a campfire yet. (A lot of that is because it’s been too windy).

Tomorrow we aren’t scheduled to to anything except drive to our next KOA. TBD if we get into any shenanigans or if we just chill at our next campsite.… until tomorrow!