My wife and I have resided in the Enchanted Land of New Mexico since 1985 but it took 21 years to take us inside the great and wonderful Carlsbad Caverns. Ditto the whacky town of Roswell, New Mexico. It was well worth the wait.
Carlsbad Caverns is a true wonder of the natural world. My spelunking history goes back to attending college in the Cumberland plateau at a university called Sewanee where I was a founding member of the Sewanee Ski and Outing Club. In those days, there were many uindiscovered caves in the mountains surrounding the University Domain. We took in the likes of a then undiscoverd Soda Straw Cave and a huge Civil War era (the mining of which tat is) salt peter cave with opening large enough for a train to enter. And there was the famous roadside attraction of RUBY FALLS...There must have been a million or so big billboards proclaiming the greatness of Ruby Falls throughout the Southlands. "SEE RUBY FALLS", the signs read. A number of those signs got changed to SEE FURY BALLS and other misnomers by both collegians and locals on late night journies of chaos. Those were the days. I love New Mexico . Relatively speaking, I have seen little of our nation's fifth largest state. I have visited quite a few of our Nation's National Parks however, and there are few that affected me as much as Carlsbad Caverns. I found that my walk into the caves recently was an inexplicable 'life changing' event. Certainly a healing one on many levels. I am concerned that our Nation's National Parks are going to be abandoned as gas prices keep tourists away and the many wars our country is spending so many billion dollars a month on, will surely dwindle our monetary resources for paying the NPS for their work. The U.S. Forest Service has already faced severe cutbacks. In our quick journey from Albuquerque to Carlsbad, there were surprisingly few folks on the roads. If the price of gasoline for our short camping trip was added up, you could indeed take a trip on South West Airlines for a comparable sum or less. Most Americans would rather spend a load of money at a man-made resort such as Disney World than pay the bargain price of $6.00 for a life changing experience underground with Mother Nature as it were. Perhaps too, we would generally prefer to explore 'outer worlds' than our 'inner worlds'. There is deep magic and healing available in the Carlsbad Caverns. You won't see that in the tourist guide books but it is true. My thanks are off to the hard work of the Civilain Conservation Corps for their original work on the trails that make it an easy walk through a natural and blessed Cathedral underground. Jeff Hartzer Albuquerque, New Mexico August 1, 2006
Jeff Hartzer © 2006 |
