Bat Flight at Carlsbad National Park

Our main reason for coming to the Carlsbad, NM, area was to tour Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We were fortunate to arrive in time to see the evening bat migration.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park has a colony of around 400,000 Mexican Freetail bats. It is indicated by research that Mexican freetail bats have roosted in Carlsbad Caverns for over 5,000 years.

Rumor has it that Carlsbad Caverns were discovered by a cowboy named Jim White when he followed what he thought was a plume of smoke, which turned out to be millions of bats, coming out of the cave's entrance.

http://www.eparks.org/wildlife_protection/wildlife_facts/bats/

You cannot take any pictures at the evening bat flight because the bat's sonar becomes disoriented by the clicking sound from the cameras and this scares them and they don't exit the cave. The park ranger puts a listening device by the entrance to the cave and when you hear the clicks everyone must be quiet and then you see this huge black cloud of bats leave the cave and fly off into the night. This is a very amazing sight that everyone that is in this area should see.

The pictures below were taken right before sunset and show the entrance to the cave where the bats fly out and the amphitheater seating.

Roswell Museum and Art Center

Continuing on our museum exploring we went to Roswell Museum and Art Center. This was a wonderful surprise. Roswell is not a large city but this museum had exhibits as good as museums in Denver.

The art display was exceptional. It had all kinds of mediums of art and a whole section dedicated to the life's work of Robert H. Goddard, who was America's Rocketry Pioneer and considered the father of modern rocket propulsion. His 1926, rocket launch using liquid fuel is as important to history as the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk.

(www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/dr_goddard.htm) Dr. Goddard performed many of his rocket experiments near Roswell, New Mexico. The museum houses his workshop and a great display of the hundreds of patents on devises still used today in jet engines and rockets.

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today, and the reality of tomorrow." Dr. Robert H. Goddard.

James Phelps White Museum, Roswell, New Mexico

We continued our Roswell Museum adventures on a more historic nature today compared to the UFO fascination yesterday :).

We went to the home and now museum of James Phelps White who was a large cattle rancher in the New Mexico area. The home was built in 1912, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum was excellent and we would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting this area. It was filled with all kinds of antiques, artifacts, and information on the history of this area in the early 20th century. The main focus is the Roswell's citizens historical influence in WWI & WWII.

UFO Museum and Research Center

Today we went to the UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, NM. This was a blast. The displays were a little dated but cleaver. The walls were covered in newspaper clippings and signed statements from the people who lived in this area during the UFO incident. There was a video of the involved people being interviewed. It all made you stop and think (and giggle a little bit :).

Ed got tired and had to lay down and take a nap :)

Bottomless Lake State Park, New Mexico

We wanted to see Roswell NM, so we made camp at Bottomless Lake State Park and were pleasantly surprised as how nice it was.

Bottomless Lake State Park is New Mexico's first state park. It is made up of several small lakes that are actually water filled sink holes. They are made from the local gypsum terrain. The surrounding ground has gypsum that sparkles when the sun hits it just right and looks like the ground is covered with diamonds.

The lakes have a green/blue color that makes them look bottomless. Before the area became a state park it was used by ranchers. Some cowboys wanted to see how deep the lakes were and tied their saddles to ropes and lowered them in the lake but could not find the bottom thus the name of bottomless lakes. The deepest lake is 90 feet.

The Blue Hole

We left Trinidad and headed south to Rozwell, NM. On our way we stopped to see The Blue Hole. Ed got scuba diving certified there many years ago. It was just as amazing after all those years.