Roswell, NM

1/5/22 – Hitting the road early I made good time and arrived way too early for my check in at Bottomless Lakes State Park just outside of Roswell, NM. Unlike most of the other parks I had stayed in that allow check in between 11am and 1pm, NM parks don’t allow check in until 4pm, the upside is check out is not until 2pm so I guess it all balances out. I grabbed a spot in the large parking area and tried not to give the current occupants of “my” site the evil eye as they packed up their camp. I explored the pavillion and the large swimming area that I imagine is just crammed packed in the summer months, today I had it all to myself.

My wait was not long and I settled into camp. Since I would be here for 5 nights, I rolled out all the goodies including my new gas fire pit. I had met a fellow camper who had one and I decided this would be a great upgrade, no more finding/buying firewood and the idea of instant on/off really sold me. I spent many hours and multiple trips to the hardware store but eventually had the correct connections so that I could use the external LP connection on the trailer. This may be the best present Santa brought me this year!

The park is only 12 miles from Roswell so I headed into town to check it out. There is a great town sign and the UFO museum really helps with the theme. Sad to report that I had no close encounters during my stay.

The weather is once again becoming an issue on the trip, the current pattern seems to be one warmish day in the low 60’s and then a cold day in the upper 40’s to low 50’s. On the nice days I would explore the park and I was happy to find there is plenty of space to roam around on the bike, and even a dedicated 3 mile mountain bike trail that was pretty fun and a bit challenging at least on the 65lb e-bike.

I wanted to visit Carlsbad Caverns National park which is about a 2 hour drive from Roswell and had been debating moving that direction and camping for a few days. But after researching it, I decided that there wasn’t too much else to see in that area so I would take advantage of one of the cooler days and just make a day trip out of it.

On the way down to the Caverns I stopped and visited Sitting Bull falls, a real gem of a park that is certainly unique in the desert southwest. I can’t imagine what the first person to discover this hidden oasis must have thought. Located up a canyon literally out in the middle of the desert is a beautiful waterfall.

The park service has done a great job with the area and there are amazing stone shelters for picnicking. I enjoyed the falls and made use of one of the shelters to have lunch. Since its managed by the USFS your annual national park pass will cover the day use fee! Only a short 1 hour detour from the Carlsbad Caverns I thinks it is very much worth a visit, you can take it all in under an hour and I can’t think of a more scenic lunch stop if you are in the area.

Carlsbad Caverns, what can I say? I didn’t really know much about it, but I knew I wanted to see it. Due to the current COVID situation you have to make a timed reservation for entry, it only costs $1 and allows the park service to limit the number of people in the caves to around 250 per hour.

WOW, just WOW, this place blew my mind. First of all it is much larger than you think, when I think caves or caverns I imagine a small cramped space, maybe some crawling in the tight spaces. No way, this place is HUGE.

You can enter through the natural entrance which adds about a 1 to 1.5 hour hike to your visit or you can be lazy like me and just ride the elevator down 750 feet to the main cavern.

Once inside the main cavern and your eyes adjust you will see just how grand the scale of the place is. I tried to take a overview picture just to show the scale.

I chose to do the “Big Room” loop and it was amazing. Due to the timed entry there were times that I was alone on my section of the trail, I guess there is something good to come out of this crazy pandemic after all. Since the sounds really carry I imagine that the serenity and beauty of this amazing place could quickly be shattered if you were jammed into the trail with hordes of folks gabbing and being typical ugly Americans.

Please check out the album, I took over 200 pictures during my visit.

Leaving after the tour, I took the scenic drive which is a 7 mile gravel loop that takes you down a canyon and shows the typical desert flora and fauna. A very nice drive and I was so glad I took the route as once I rejoined the main road I spotted some of the non-native Barbary Sheep, in fact I think it was the whole herd. So cool, they were just hanging out doing sheep stuff and I was able to get close and take a bunch of pictures.

I’ll be heading to Alamogordo, NM for a visit to the White Sands National Park in the next episode, so stay tuned!