This was a very full day! We started the day with breakfast at Blue House Pastries and Breakfast in Carlsbad. It was a very busy place but very friendly and very good. After we filled up on French toast, Belgian waffles, bacon and coffee for those drinking coffee we drove down to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Outside the entrance we saw some strange cattle that we later learned were called Ankole-Watusi Cattle with a history that dates far back in Europe and Africa. Their milk is very high in fat and their meat is very lean.
The drive in the park leading to the visitor's center is winding with mountains on both sides most of the way. At one point in the drive we saw a cave entrance up in the hillside and to our shock a family of mountain sheep were exiting the cave and traveling across the hillside. Later in the day we saw those same animals, called Barbary Sheep in a field next to the road. There were a lot more of them, and they were a lot closer.
Once at the visitor's center we checked in to see if we could get an earlier time to enter the cave. We were told we could go any time since it was a slow day, so we headed for the entrance where the bats had flown out from last night. No bats were seen by us in the cave...they were all sleeping elsewhere in the cave system. The walk into the cave was a long and somewhat steep one as we followed the winding trail into the cavern. Over the course of about 1.5 miles we descended about 750 feet below ground. It took us well over an hour to get to the bottom but we stopped often to take pictures and appreciate the experience.
