Carlsbad Caverns June 5

We went to Carlsbad Caverns on June 5th. We drove through West Texas, which was quite unpopulated. We saw lots of cows and oil drills on the sides of the road, but that was about it. It definitely became more desert like as we entered into New Mexico. We went on a tour of Carlsbad Caverns and we really enjoyed it! We also watched the bats fly out of the caves for their evening feeding at about 8:00 pm. It was pretty cool to see that many caves exit the cave that we had just explored. Apparently, 400-500 bats cramp into the space of the inside of a baseball hat. There are about 400,000 or so bats that fly out of the caves during the summer. During the winter, they migrate south to Mexico, Central America, and even Brazil (according to the Park Ranger). We attempted camping in Carlsbad, but by the time we left the bat show, it was hard to find the place that the Park Ranger had told us to go as it was dark (she said to pull off on a dirt road). Oh well...hopefully soon we will get to use our borrowed tent.