Category: Brantley Lake SP

Brantley Lake State Park, Saturday October 15, 2016

Went to see the bats fly out of Carlsbad Caverns tonight, it such an amazing thing to watch.  Their were a lot of people there and we stayed until we couldn’t see any more bats.  Bats were still flying out it was just too dark.  Even with the full moon we could only see bats when they flew between us and moon. It takes two to three hours for all the bats to fly out each night, between 300,000 and 500,000 bats live in the cave.

This picture is from the national park website.  In order not to disturb and/or scare the bats cameras and electronic devices are not allowed to be on or used.  We saw a ranger escort three people out of the amphitheater for trying to violate this request.

Current plan is to be here for a few more days and then follow the warm weather to wherever it takes us.  Home for Turkey day.

Glad to hear that the BIG storm at home did not materialize and winds were in the 40 mpg range and rain for the week was in the 4-5 inch range.  Sunny and 94 here on Sunday.

Brantley Lake State Park, North Of Carlsbad Caverns – Thursday October 13, 2016

We came back to see the bats at Carlsbad Caverns again.  They were amazing last year and since we were halfway across New Mexico we continued east a ways.  There is no point in going north of Albuquerque this time of year because the weather is going to start getting cold.    The weather report for home is a major wind and rain storm this weekend, Yuck.

Don’t know how long we will be here.  Going to see the bats a couple of times, need to do laundry, food shopping and spend some time doing nothing aka retirement.

Campsite pictures, same site as last year, site 37.
Here is the view out  the front window.

The site across from us is closed for the time being, electrical is out.  It also looks like they ran new power lines into the park since we were here last time.  They we having some problem with about half of the reservation sites and could not figure out what was wrong when we left last year.

Today’s drive.
The short line just above the lake is a stop at Lakewood Post Office.  I purchased a new camera strap from Amazon which Richard has been using.  I had it sent to Brian and then when we decided to come in this direction I asked Brian to send it General Delivery to Lakewood.
We found a site and then went and dumped the holding tanks.  We are set for a while.

Brantley Lake SP – Carlsbad, NM Shower Valve – Friday October 23, 2015

Today was laundry day.  It is always a challenge to find a laundromat.  The first one we found on Yelp we could not find in town.  I think it was where they are building a new Buffalo Wings restaurant.  The second one work out great.

Motorhome improvement:
Last year I added to ball valve to our shower.  It is not the most “high end” shower fixture however it sure works great.  It is a 1/4 turn on and off which makes controlling the water flow prefect.  The hot and cold water mix values on motor homes are not the best quality and it’s difficult to get the right temperature when trying to use the least amount of water.  Once I get the correct water temp I only have to use the ball valve to control the water flow.
This works great.
I also changed out the shower head last year.  This one mixes air with the water flow and spins the water to help create more water pressure.

This shower head is a lot heavier than the original head so I added these two strings to help support the shower head and allow for two different water flow angles.

Brantley Lake SP – Carlsbad, NM – Wednesday October 21, 2015

We moved to the Carlsbad area because the the weather system which has been in New Mexico since Monday.  Most of the state has been under a flash flood warning all week.  Tuesday night Roswell got hit with 4 inches of rain and had a tornado warning.   Well tonight we got a really hard rain which lasted 45 minutes before it moved on.

I got some pictures.
It was totally dark, the light is from lightening and this shows some of the rain.

I got some lightening in these pictures.

The sky was lighting up all around us.

Brantley Lake SP – Carlsbad, NM – Tuesday October 20, 2015

Yes we went back on Tuesday.   On Monday we started down into the caverns at 12:30 and came out at 4:20.   The bat flight program starts at 5:45 so we stayed and it was again amazing.  The bats started to come out at 6:10 and they were still coming out when we left at 7:15, it was just to dark to see them.  The ranger said it takes 2 1/2 to 4 hours for all the bats to come out 300,000 to 400,000 are here this year.  Did you know you can see bats two miles away.  They come out of the caverns in what looks like a flying tube extending out into the air and across the country side.  You can actually see clouds of bats out at least 2 miles from the caverns and maybe further.

Tuesday we came back to spend more time in the caverns and to see the bat flight again.  Jean got a big blister on Monday so I walked down the natural entrance by myself and Jean took the elevator down a hour after I started down.  At home this morning when I set down to put my shoes on Hank stationed himself so I could not leave without letting him know I was leaving.

On Monday I took 700 pictures and Tuesday I got an additional 476.

This is one of the largest single features.
An amazing 62 feet high.

Few pictures of cavern features:
This one shows the some of the size of the caverns.

Looking across one of the rooms.

Ok, that’s enough.  I still have 24 pictures I prepared to put into this post but I’ll control myself.    Have a GREAT day.

 

Brantley Lake SP – Carlsbad, NM – Monday October 19, 2015

How do you write a blog about Carlsbad Caverns.   They are truly amazing.  The size is beyond what will fit in a camera.  They have mapped 138 miles of  caverns.  The main cavern you get to tour on the self guided tour is 750 feet below the surface and will hold 14 football fields, the ceiling is 200 feet high in places, one of the large formations is 62 feet high. The place is so big you just don’t have the feeling you are underground.

Today Jean and I walked the one mile trail from the natural opening 750 feet down into the mail cavern.   Here is some of my pictures:
A flower from the natural entrance.

And a wasp.

I found this on the net showing a cross cut of the caverns.


Need to have at least one picture to show the bats are here.

The next amazing thing you experience is the trail down into the caverns.  It drops quickly into the ground dropping at a plus 20% grade for almost a mile.

The ranger said it is an hour trip to the bottom, we took 2 hours and enjoyed every minute of the trip down.

Brantley Lake SP – Carlsbad, NM – Sunday October 18, 2015

We got here about 12:30 this afternoon and plan on staying here until the weather clears, that should be Thursday or Friday.

I just heard that if you are trying to head north from Arizona through Nevada or Utah you are out of luck.  The three main roads are either closed ( 95 and 93) and I-15 through Utah may close or could be closed now.

Here are today’s campsite pictures, we’re in # 37.
This is our view.

Here is today’s drive.

We are just north of Carlsbad, NM.

Their was a sign at the visitor’s center saying the campground was full.  We drove into the campground to find a site and than went back to the main road to the dump station.


We set up in site 36 by the tree in the center.  I have the TV satellite dish on the roof of our RV and the tree was in the way to get a signal.  While we were setting up camp the guy in site 37 left.  We decided to move camp to 37 rather than getting up on the roof and taking the sat. dish down so we could get a signal.

Hank is really happy.  We got out for a walk this afternoon, this campground does not seem to have any Goat Heads.

I’ll end today with some sunset pictures.

Brantley Lake SP – Carlsbad, NM – Monday October 12, 2015

We stayed in camp all day today.   It is supposed to get to 88 or 90 degrees and the park is going to have the electricity off for most of the day.  Site 1 – 15 do not have working electricity and today is the day to get it fixed.  With the power off we can not leave Hank in the motorhome all day with this kind of heat.  We will wait and go to Carlsbad Caverns on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Just before dark the campground host came by and said the power will be off most of the day Tuesday.  What they did Monday did not fix the problem and sites 1 – 15 still are not working and they are not really sure what the problem is.  We decided to head for Roswell on Tuesday morning (10/13/2015) then to Fort Sumner, NM on Thursday morning and spend the weekend in the Fort Sumner area.  We will come back to Brantley Lake and Carlsbad next week.  We are getting really flexible.