Category: New Mexico

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM – Friday October 21, 2016

Today we went to the caverns and bat show.   This time I walked from the caverns up the natural entrance and Jean walked around the big room.

We went to the bat show it was very different this time.  We learn a lot of numbers and only saw a few bats.  The bat show started at 5:30 p.m. and the bats did not start out until 6:40 p.m.  They came out  of the caverns just clearing the top edge of the opening and they all headed southeast.  It was pretty dark by 6:50 and by 7:00 we could not see any bats however we could still hear them.  

We did get a lot of numbers:
793,000 most bats counted during a 2005 bat count
64,000  least counted that year
This year most of the bats left during July, very dry month at Carlsbad and the bats went other places, however they have returned.
They can fly to 10,000 feet, they go to this elevation because the moth they eat will go this high.
Come out of the caverns at a rate of 10-12,000 a minute.
Fly at 25-30 miles per hour
Can live up to 25 years.

 

 

Carsbad, NM – Living Desert Zoo – Wednesday October 19, 2016

It is a nice small zoo.  It is $5.00 to get in and they have a lot of information about desert plants.
This was in the nocturnal house.
Three bobcats and two mountain lions, these are the bobcats.

If you have one prairie dog you have a bunch and they had a bunch.

They have an aviary however it was closed because a new roof was being put on it.

We had a nice afternoon.  Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park.

 

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.