Day trip: Carlsbad Caverns

A few weeks ago, Paul didn't have school on Friday for Spring Break (it was just one day, not the entire week). So we loaded up the kiddos and caravaned with a few of our friends to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, about 3 1/2 hours away.

Hattie and her buddy Juliet were so good...they are great little friends

We geared up for the 1 1/2 hike down into the caves. They said we hiked down 800 ft - equal to 4 Statue of Libertys.

The downhill hike started with some with some serious switchbacks. It was cool to look down and not see the bottom.

This picture shows the last bit of light that we had for a few hours.

A cave formation called the whale's mouth.

Hattie did pretty well walking down. Every so often she realized how dark it was and got scared, but on the whole, she was an angel.

And of course she loved holding hands with friends.

Paul still took his turn with both girls. By the end of the walk Anna was exhausted. Once we got to the bottom of the cave we entered "The Big Room" which add another 1 1/2 mile walk around inside...at least it was all flat and there was no more downhill walking. At that point, our camera died, and Anna was finished, so Hattie and I did a quick walk through the cave. It was so beautiful and amazing. I'm always curious to know how such places were discovered, buried so deep in the earth. Gratefully, there is an elevator that took us back to the surface so that we didn't have to hike up 800 ft!

We loved spending the day with the Babcocks, Lindsays, and Foutzes!