March 18, 2020 Carlsbad Cavern National Park

The drive from El Paso to Carlsbad Caverns was a couple of hours but the drive was pretty and I drove through the Guadalupe Mountains National Park to get there.  I was happy to see a rest area in between the two parks since I wasn't sure what my other sleeping options were going to be.  There is a small settlement outside Carlsbad Caverns but not really big enough to be a town.  Mostly a motel, a restaurant, gift shop and a gas station.  I was surprised when I got to the visitor center how full the parking lot was.  the RV lot was completely full and the regular car lot was 3/4 full.  It was crazy.  It was just coming up to noon and I wasn't sure what time the tours were scheduled.  I thought perhaps if I could catch an early tour I'd have time to drive about Guadalupe Mountains NP on the same day and head back to El Paso before it go too late.    I grab my wallet and my parks pass and I go to the ticket buying line.  My parks pass doesn't give me free tours but it does give me a discount on tours.  Today is a different kind of thing though, because the park is free today, the elevator is broken and the only tour is the self guided tour.  Why is the park free today?  I asked but he never answered and I got distracted by something and forgot to circle back.

There were signs all over stating the elevator was broken, the natural entrance was difficult and everyone had to be out by 4pm.  That's four hours right?  Surely I can do it in four hours.  But I'm worried about the stairs or incline.  Hills are not my thing.

I go out to the car and switch my slide on shoes for sneakers.  I threw the slide ons on my feet just to run into the visitors center.  I was worried that I'd miss the next tour by screwing around in the car.  I figured if I had time, I'd run back out and put on proper shoes.  I had time, so I put on proper shoes and grabbed water and some jelly beans (thank you universal studios) and headed out.  They had a pretty nice museum but I was so concerned about the 3.75 hike into the cave with 2/3 of that being on some kind of steep terrain.  I skip over most of the museum and head right to cave.  I can always do the museum if I get back early enough.

There is a park ranger that is giving everyone instructions and information before passing her.  I think it also helps to keep people of different groups separated.  Social distancing is a new popular term.  I talk to her about my knee issues and she explains how the trail works.  Its 1.25 miles down.  There is a flat path around the big room, its another 1.25 miles around.  Then its 1.25 miles back up.  It is very steep.  The elevator is broken.  If you go down and you can't come back up, the elevator will not be an option.  It was a lot of information.

She suggested I evaluate my knees on the way down and at any point I can chose to turn around and return.  I decided to do this.

I went down the stupid incline super slow.  Being overly cautious and acting like a crip.  Watching the time and constantly evaluating the incline going back up.  At some point, towards the end, I realized I was being ridiculous.  I was doing 5k inclines at the gym.  This wasn't that much different.  I just needed to change my mindset from...possible activity that will destroy my knees....to trained athlete that can do this.  It was a good change.  I made better time on the way down and made good time on the 1.25 flat loop.  I also spent some time in the bathroom, because cave bathrooms make me giggle.  I also bought an orange juice and chugged that in the cave café before continuing my journey.  There were A LOT of photo-ops.  I set the timer on my watch to make sure I didn't spend too much time taking photos and I didn't make my goals but it did make me stay moving.  

Starting the walk back up the incline, I decided to just go slow, use the handrail as needed and stop whenever there was a bench.  Wait until my heart rate drops below 115 and then continue on to the next bench.  I worked slow and steady.  Met some other people doing the same thing.  And I made it to the top in much better time than I thought I could.  I decided to skip the museum and head to the car.  I needed diet coke and food.  Luckily I had a Dollar Tree bag of canned SpaghettiO's.  Took the drive out and enjoyed a casual drive back to the rest area.  It was still light out and if they didn't allow overnight parking I could move on to find something else.  I found a woman cleaning and asked if overnight parking was allowed.  She confirmed it was but limited to 3 days.  I needed it for only one so I was pretty happy.  Found a parking spot that wasn't too greedy.  Kicked back with some Criminal Minds and my diet coke and waited for dark.  Crawled into the back at bedtime and slept great.