King of the Road - December 2011
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Into the Light
Smalltown Carlsbad offers a bounty of surprises.
Story by Lesley S. King
I step along a paved path that leads down into a giant aperture in the earth. The air grows moist, and the tart scent of bat guano fills my nostrils. I imagine the 16-year-old cowboy Jim White, who, back in 1898, made this same trip, climbing down a handmade ladder to uncover the mystery that in 1930 became Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
The Caverns, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers one of New Mexico’s most spectacular adventures, but the town of Carlsbad, with a population of 26,250 and located 277 miles southeast of Albuquerque, has other treasures as well. Visitors can enjoy a zoo that’s home to 50 species of rescued desert animals—several of them endangered—the state’s oldest municipal museum, a luxurious Old World hotel set in an 1892 National Historic Landmark, and, this month, a river cruise past a brilliant Christmas lights display. The area especially appeals to families and nature lovers.
Continuing along the one-mile Natural Entrance Trail into Carlsbad Caverns, I begin to see the fantastical architecture of formations that adorn the grand underground chambers—from stalactites and stalagmites to popcorn and pillars. Each formation is named for, roughly, what it looks like. I pass the Devil’s Spring, a pond decorated with elegant pinnacles; gaze up at stone draperies; and pause by the Witch’s Finger, a 20-foot-tall lone pillar on a ledge above a chasm. The trail takes me 750 feet down into one of 117 known caves here, some of the longest and largest in the world.
Need to Know What to See & Do Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park Carlsbad Museum and Art Center Christmas on the Pecos Where to Stay & Dine |
After my one-hour descent, I come to the sprawling 14-acre Big Room, with ceilings as high as that of a cathedral. (Visitors can arrive here in an elevator if they don’t care to walk down.) The tour of the Big Room takes me along a 1¼-mile paved trail through an outrageous landscape of stone, which includes huge and varied pagodas and totem poles in the Hall of Giants, and smaller pixie-like formations and lily pads in the magical Fairyland. Every direction holds wonders, and this is only a fraction of the spectacle. On various guided tours, visitors can explore six other caves in this system, which an inland sea began sculpting 250 million years ago. I finish my tour with a ride in the elevator up to the glossy new Visitor Center, a sophisticated complex with an exhibit of Ansel Adams’ Caverns photos—the famed photographer captured images here in the 1930s—as well as a movie theater and a restaurant.
My next adventure takes me to another of Carlsbad’s major highlights, the 1,200-acre Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park. I wander along a 1.3-mile path that gives a glimpse of some 500 plant species. It starts through sand dunes adorned with cholla cactus and acacia trees, then enters the Aviary, alive with the sounds of mourning doves and songbirds. A roadrunner darts past, and a curve-billed thrasher perches in a treetop.
Back on the main trail, I encounter a gray fox, which lounges on a piñon limb.
I see javalenas with razor-sharp tusks, a cougar lying in the shade, endangered Mexican gray wolves prancing through brush, and a great horned owl, who stares me down from the mouth of a cave. I meet up with curator Holly Payne, who says the Zoo has taken in many of the animals because, for various reasons, they couldn’t survive in the wild. My last stop, the Succulents of the World exhibit, displays cacti straight out of a Dr. Seuss story.
Dazed by the natural wonders, I make my way back into town, where I stop at the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center, one of the region’s biggest surprises. I assume I’ll have a relaxing meander through this small-town cache, when suddenly my attention ignites. Before me stands a vast collection of arrowheads, axes, knives, and other prehistoric arrow points, as well as a stunning array of ancient pottery. “For such a small museum in a small town, we have a world-class collection here,” says curator Patsy Jackson-Christopher.
Back in 1931, when the museum was founded, and for years afterward, the Smithsonian Institution and the University of New Mexico brought many of the artifacts from Southwestern excavations here. As well as the ancient collection, the museum has art by the great masters of New Mexico, including an enchanting Taos scene by Leon Gaspar, an iconic Western landscape by Peter Hurd, and a whimsical sculpture of children by Glenna Goodacre.
As evening comes, I check into the Trinity Hotel Restaurant & Wine Bar, a complete surprise for such a small town. Set in an 1892 bank building, the hotel offers high ceilings and hardwood floors—an elegance that carries into the guestrooms. They are spacious, with black, carved-wood furniture and quality linens, and some have Jacuzzis. The town’s best restaurant is here, too, serving a gourmet Italian dinner and steaks. Wine from the hotel owner’s private vineyard and cigars from a humidor in what was once the bank’s safe add even more complex flavors to the Trinity experience.
I finish the day along the Pecos River, where six miles of trails traverse the 125-acre Lake Carlsbad Recreation Area. This stretch of placid water offers boating, fishing, and swimming year round. As the sun sets, I board the 1858 George Washington, a paddleboat that takes me to view Christmas on the Pecos. From Thanksgiving weekend to New Year’s Eve, a handful of tour boats travel for 40 minutes along the broad river at night, where some 100 homeowners have created elaborate displays in their backyards. Light glimmers through the darkness, forming reindeer running, elves helping Santa deliver gifts, and spinning carousels.
This shining moment offers the perfect ending to my eight years of writing the “King of the Road” column for New Mexico Magazine. I am exceedingly grateful to the readers who have followed my adventures. I thank you for your encouragement, but more than that, for simply traveling
with me down the back roads of this enchanting state.
Lesley S. King (www.lesleysking.com) day-trips to another little-known place each month.
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