Northern Colorado Grotto

I signed up for Lint Camp at Carlsbad Caverns last September to see the cave free and get complimentary room and board. The work is easy, even fun and rewarding to see a difference made while cleaning a formation.

I forgot that I had committed myself to representing Special Transit at the Bus Rodeo in Crested Butte on Sunday the 17th. After that event, I left for Carlsbad.

I stopped in Sante Fe around 11pm for gas and coffee. Before I pumped the gas, I asked the clerk, a large mean looking guy, if he had any hot, fresh coffee. He said, "Yeah." I pumped the gas and went to pay and asked for a large coffee. He says, "Only got one size." He goes into the back room and comes out with a dinky little cup and charges me a dollar for it.

"Are you kidding, for 8oz?!"

He glares. I glare back but he's bigger and meaner so I pay. "Better be damn good coffee."

Back on the road, coffee tastes like he scraped the bottom of a week old pot. Fortunately, I had some chocolate to wash it down. It made my stomach hurt, but really got me wired, so I had no problem staying awake.

At 4:15am I arrived in Carlsbad. There are 2 research huts to stay in, but I didn't want to wake anyone up, so I set up my bed in the back of the van.

I'm still wide awake. What a hellacious cup of coffee.

7:30am September 18
Breakfast time. I feel real good for only a couple of hours sleep. I meet everyone (there's 21 of us) and decide the rooms are too small for four guys, my air mattress and me. So I decide to stay in my van, which I have to keep parked .2 of a mile away from the huts.

Even walking along side the trails in this cave is great. It's so huge that we spend half the time just looking around and acquainting ourselves with the cave. After dinner, the fun begins and we divide into groups for off-trail caving.

My group goes to the Guadalupe Room - caving at its best! We went through the Hall of the White Giants. White soda straws and columns everywhere. We just stared in amazement, but Sandy, our trip leader, just laughed and said, "It gets better." Incredibly enough, it did! Formations kept getting thicker and larger as we went deeper. There were 15 - 20ft soda straws by the thousands. Between the lack of sleep and the outstanding beauty, things became quite surreal.

We slid down a long flowstone slope like a fun house slide. At the bottom there was a hole off to the left. Only 2 people at atime were allowed in this hole. Through this hole was a small room ( in Carlsbad standards anyway) was an area of white aragonite covered helectites. It looked like snow covered branches, and on one of the branches sat a perfect yellow canary frozen in endless time. On the up slope of this room was a forest of columns, white, withered trunks stretching up into the ceiling, completing the illusion of being in an enchanted woods.

September 19
During the week, everyone got to take either the morning or afternoon off to walk the tourist trails. Bill, Tony and I spent hours walking the trails admiring the immense size of the cave. That's the nice thing about tourist lighting. I would never be able to comprehend the largeness with just a headlamp.

September 20
No work - too bad. Just caving in the local area - well if I have to. Most of us 4-wheeled up to the Black Canyon Overlook where we divided into 3 groups. Since I'm vertically qualified (Ha Ha, thanks Randy), I joined Ed, Kevin, Tim and Dale on a trip to Hidden Cave. This cave is done in 2 drops. First drop to the left goes into walking passage, nice rooms, and lots of formations and shields. I went through a crawl that opened up into a nice hall. Looking up I noticed many bats on the ceiling.

The second drop took us to a huge room with a smooth floor. We could have played a game of football there. The walls were made of huge flowing columns. A large empty, pool dominated the front of the room with an 8 - 10 inch high rim all around it. A long time ago, the area behind the columns were deep pools. Now empty, we were able to walk among the . . . I don't know what to call it. Cloud like . . . Popcorn covered . . . Giant mushroom . . . Things.

The entire group had agreed to meet at 5:00 for dinner. After dinner, Pat, Charles, Dale, Steve and I headed to Endless Cave. This poor cave was gated long after it had been heavily vandalized. There is hardly a 'tite left. Very sad.

After climbing down and going thru a small hole we were in a wide long room with a low ceiling. The walls and ceiling were covered with white, glittery gypsum approximately 18" thick. Vents and air shafts came up through the gypsum covered floor.

September 21
I was afraid after all the pretties I'd been exposed to, cave burn out would set in. Not so! The trip to the New Mexico Room was definitely the high light of the week.

Just a short trip off trail and the beauty begins. Blue pools with white 'tites and 'mites and towering walls of flow stone. Sandy, Bill and Steve went up into the balcony while Tony, Dale and I went down through the room. There was an unreal pool lined with orange crystals and half a dozen columns coming out of it. I had to stay and stare for a while so, Tony and Dale went on ahead.

When I caught up to Tony, he was standing on a rock looking at the top of a large breakdown boulder. "Wow, you won't believe what's on top of this rock. There is a little pool with seven perfectly round, white cave pearls!"

Tony, a large man built like a line backer, was just able to see it. Since we were absolutely forbidden to cross the taped path and there was nothing larger for me to climb on I sighed, "I never get to see it." Tony offered to let me climb on his back and I happily accepted. When I looked on the rock, I not only saw Tony's beautiful littlepool but, a larger pool he couldn't see. Just to the left in a hollow, with about 35 of those same little marble-sized cave pearls. I debated telling him about it for fear he would want me to offer my back. We continued on through an amazing land of black flow stone with pure shocking white stalagmites on top. The room ended in a sparkling grotto filled with all the goodies and a blue-green pool.

We traded places with the other trio and headed up into the balcony. We climbed a steep dirt bank until we came to a wall of helectites. There was a flow stone hallway with columns on either side and a soda straw ceiling. The hallway opens into an overlook way above the New Mexico Room. Helectites, pools and even some beaded helectites dominate. At the end of the overlook is a nice soft sandy, area about 10 feet in diameter. As I sat on the sandy floor, I could look down and across the New Mexico Room. About 250 feet away I could see Steve and Bill. I turned off my head lamp, sat back and acquired the coolest hallucination! It appeared as if Bill and Steve were only 2 or 3 feet from me but, less than one inch tall. As they looked toward each other, I could see the expressions on their faces. Anything they looked at, I could see with incredible detail. I suppose since my eyes had nothing else to focus on, the distance was something my mind couldn't fathom. This was really neat and I watched them until they went around out of sight.

When we came out of the cave that night, it was cold, rainy and windy. After a shower and a beer, I made a mad dash for my van. Wet and chilled I slid into my bag and threw all my gear on top of myself for warmth. It turned out to be quite comfortable. In fact I slept so well, I overslept and missed breakfast.

September 22
The day stayed cloudy and rainy. A good day to be in a cave. We were supposed to have a BBQ and party this evening but since the weather didn't cooperate, we just hung out in one of the huts. I can't believe how the week just flew by.