Chambers of secrets
Way back in the Permian period, over 230 million years ago, the part of Pangea around what is now Carlsbad, New Mexico, was the basin of the Delaware Sea. The accreting remains of sponges, algæ, and other organisms slowly formed a reef, which, after the sea dried up and much later geologic changes occurred, became part of the Guadalupe Mountains.
Water seeping through the eventually eroded reef formed sulfuric acid which carved the huge chambers that would become the Carlsbad Caverns. In subsequent times, the percolating ground water would dissolve a little limestone on its way down, and deposit calcite as it dripped to the chamber floors, leading to the spectacular speleothems that now decorate the National Park.
Although the smaller grotto-crawling tours were all booked, Knox and I went on the self-guided tour of the Big Room (the largest cavern chamber in the Western hemisphere; the first in the world is in Borneo) and on a group tour of the King’s Palace (a collection of smaller chambers).
Words cannot begin to do justice to the majestic beauty of the caverns. At times the elegant coolness of the stalactites reminded me of the Fortress of Solitude. Sometimes the stalagmites formed an eerie, other-worldly pageant. In more whimsical moments, the flowstone and draperies resembled thick cake batter dripping off a spatula.