Carlsbad, New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns National Park

We spent a few days in the Dallas-Fort Worth area doing an interview for our book and visiting a spring festival at a historic farm. This roadtrip is a little different than our previous travels because we're taking our time and not driving 9+ hours a day to get to one destination. Our first "big" stop was in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

We spent some time in the city of Carlsbad before heading into Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We found a small city park along the river and we used the picnic tables to cook dinners, the paths to get our daily run in, and the grass areas for yoga. The park had a few playgrounds, restrooms, fishing piers, and a bandstand. It's called Lake Carlsbad Beach Park and we highly recommend it for a quiet evening stroll or time away from the touristy areas. We also got a delicious burrito from a Mexican food truck called El Charro. It was very affordable and worth the 30 minute dinnertime rush wait.

We spent about half a day in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We took our time driving the five miles from the park entrance to the Visitor Center. Adam got great pictures of desert flowers, the sunlight on the mountains, and the contour lines from the historic rivers and oceans that flowed over the region. We had made reservations in advance because the National Park Service Carlsbad website said reservations were required for cave tours. It was a surprise to us, then, when we arrived and were told we needed to purchase tickets. Those reservations apparently just guaranteed us a spot in the self-guided tour entrance time. Never fear, our annual National Parks Pass was still good and it waived the $14/person ticket fee.

Before our cave tour time, we took the 9.5 mile scenic drive around the backcountry area of the park. While the caves are amazing, we highly recommend this at the same level of excitement as the cave tours. The road is gravel and no RVs or trailers are allowed on it (vans are fine though!). We spent almost two hours on the drive and stopped frequently for pictures and to admire the beauty of the landscape. We also saw lots of wildlife! It started off by Madi spotting a few mule deer grazing just off the road. Adam got great pictures there! Not even five minutes later, Madi spotted a few javelinas (kind of like a pig) up a slope right next to the road. They were too fast and camouflaged for Adam to get many pictures. But wait... It gets better!

After our cave tour (which was incredible and so very different from one of Madi's childhood favorites, Mammoth Cave National Park), we nearly ran over -- not joking -- a Barbary sheep. There were probably 40 of these sheep grazing along both sides of the road. We found a pull off and got out to watch and take pictures. We watched three cars slam on their breaks because these sheep would run into the middle of the road right in front of a car (just like deer do in the Midwest). We could hear the babies bleeting from all the way up the hill where their momma was sheltering them in a small rock cave. It was truly incredible.

After this magical experience inside and outside the caves, we headed three hours west across the mountains to White Sands National Park.