February 22nd through March 12th, 2025
We had a big year planned, and we were going to spend a couple of weeks in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on our way to the Midwest. Things turned bad while we were there, but it started off nicely. We spent a single night in Las Cruces on our way to Carlsbad, and it was bittersweet because we always enjoyed our time in that town. It was a little emotional for both of us to leave the area, potentially for the last time.
The last time we went over the Guadalupe Mountains wasn't too good -- our last coach blew over and was totaled. Our plan in 2023 was to spend time in Carlsbad and see the Carlsbad Caverns, but when the coach got destroyed that meant we couldn't go to Carlsbad. We were going to change that in 2025.
The weather was lovely when we went by the visitor center at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, though it was windy. That's where the last coach blew over, and neither one of us wanted to risk it again with the new coach. So, we took lots of photos of the scenery when we drove right by it.
We managed to make it to Carlsbad without blowing over (the weather was fine but that doesn't stop those bad feelings), so we were good to go! It looked like it would be a nice couple of weeks. The weekend in between we finally got to see Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
You have to get timed-entry tickets ahead of time, and ours got us in right when the park opened. We had a great parking space near the door, and we spent a bunch of time in the gift shop. Our plan was to do the long walk through the caverns. We went down through the Natural Entrance. The caverns have an elevator to take you down, or you can walk downhill for a long way to get in through the actual cavern entrance. We were so glad we went that way, and very happy we wore the right shoes. You're walking downhill for a long time.
The caverns are pretty amazing. The entire area is a paved trail with handrails, so you get up close to some amazing sights. We took a lot of pictures, and this post features 123 of our favorite photos. It's a lot! But it will always be such a great memory for us.
It looked like Carlsbad was going to treat us right this time! We were really enjoying our stay but also looking forward to the real 2025 to start. What could go wrong? Turns out, a lot could still go wrong. Carlsbad has it out for us, and we'll talk more about that in our next post. Stay tuned!
