Texas/New Mexico

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is in Texas - we'd never heard of it! But had to cross it off our list of National Parks!! It is a ocean reef so filled with fossils/limestone. The Guadalupe Mountain is the tallest peak in Texas (8,700 feet). Then we drove North to New Mexico to go through the Carlsbad Caverns. So different from the Lava Caves as it is a limestone cave with stalactites (c for ceiling) and stalagmites (g for ground). The big room is as large as 16 football fields and no photo is going to do it justice at all! There were "fairylands" of popcorn like stalagmites...draperies of stalactites...we took a guided tour through the King's Palace and then went on a self-guided hike through the Big Room. That took all morning. Compared to our small lava caves in northern California, this was just so large and expansive and so beautiful!