Gadling Destination: Carlsbad Caverns NP

by Erik Olsen on

Years ago during a cross-country drive with an old girlfriend, I visited
Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. I’d read about the caves in a guidebook
and saw some faded postcards in a store, and none of this much inspired me. I figured the caves were a kind of lame,
hyped-up tourist attraction like the World’s Biggest
Ball of String. I was wrong.

Carlsbad Caverns is amazing. The gaping breadth of these underground cathedrals, the unfathomable ornateness of the
limestone formations, will make you wonder if you’ve just stumbled into a fantasy underworld, (or, perhaps more
appealing to young pop culture fans), onto the set of the Matrix.

The caverns were formed 250 million years ago when a 400 mile long reef covered the area here in New Mexico, forming a
happy habitat for sponges, algae and prehistoric crustaceans. Over time the reef was buried, the water evaporated, and
a massive expanse of lime existed here. Then came the rains, and the water dissolved the lime that was underground,
leaving behind magnificent underground chambers.

And I mean magnificent. Sure, you’ll bring your digital camera, but the fact is, no photo you can ever see will ever
do justice to how cool these caverns are in real life. The caves are open all year round and you can tour many of them
with a guide and/or without.

So if you’re heading out on the road this summer, perhaps also embarking on that once-in-a-lifetime cross0contry road
trip, don’t forget to stop in New Mexico and check out the caverns.

Teen Beats Off Bear

by Erik Olsen on

So there you are, a wee lad of 14, sleeping in the wilderness, nothing but the gaping black sky above, when suddenly
you hear heavy breathing. Sure, that could be mom and dad in the other tent, but it sounds a lot closer than that. In
fact, it right outside the tent. In fact, something is now PAWING at the tent and OH MY GOD IT’S A BEAR!

Or so went the likely scenario when 14 year old
Keelan Patton awoke to find a bear pawing at him on Tuesday while he was camping with family near Coaldale, Colo. The
bear actually pawed through the fabric of the boy’s tent, but the boy slugged him. The bear bit the boy’s left hand,
grimaced, and then went on to find tastier children elsewhere. And so it goes in the world of bears.

BTW: Did that headline catch your eye? I knew it would.

Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza

by Erik Olsen on

Summer is a great time for music. All around the country music
fans can experience the best in rock, bluegrass, country, classical and blues…to name just a few. I used to be a
regular attendee of several events like the Telluride Bluegrass
Festival, which offer the opportunity to get outdoors and to watch the country’s best musicians in a live
setting.

Keeping with this theme, I offer a link to the
10th Annual Mammoth Festival of Beers and
Bluesapalooza. Mammoth is known as a ski area, but in the last five years or so,
Mammoth has really taken off as a killer place to head for the
summer. Fishing, mountain biking, hiking…Mammoth has
it all. And now they are also putting on some of the better music fests around. The Mammoth festival happens this year
from August 5 – 6 and will feature some of the best microbreweries and blues bands around. You can
catch the “Acoustic Blues BBQ” just before heading up the hill for an epic ride down the mountain.

Some of the big names playing are The Tommy Castro Band and Rod Piazza and
the Mighty Flyers. Check out the site for more
info.

Choosing a Tent

by Erik Olsen on

Selecting the best tent for you depends on a lot of factors, but primarily it is a question of what type of camping
you most often do. Are you a car camper, someone who drives into a camping spot and sets up right out of the trunk? Or
are you a hiking camper, someone in need of a lightweight and packable tent that can help keep you warm in sub-zero
temperatures? You have to decide.

So as you ponder this question, take a look at a few of these links that offer help on choosing the best tent for you.
They offer a wide range of tent ideas and suggestions for everyone from families and car campers to more hard core
tents for high altitude types. Some of these links are from equipment makers themselves, so obviously be wary of some
prejudice. But overall I think these links are a great way to get started selecting the tent for you.

Hiking Equipment and Camping
site

About.com’s Camping Basics

LL Bean’s breakdown of tent
criteria

Sierra Designs – nice list of models according to
need


REI – Choosing a Tent

National Parks: The Best and Worst

by Erik Olsen on

I have raved here so often about how great our National Park System is in this
country that I sometimes get tired of hearing myself. I apologize for the drumbeat, but if there is one thing we should
be proud of in this country when it comes to government, it is the NPS. That said, there are some parks that rule and
some that suck. Some National Parks or Monuments or whatever, get their designation as a result of pork, because some
Senator or Congressman wants to dedicate the place that taffy was invented as a National Historic Site to please his
constituents.

So as consumers of the National Park System’s goods, to put things in strict economic terms, it is important for us to
know which parks are good and which are not. And that is where
this list by National
Geographic Traveler comes in handy.  This is serious stuff. They’ve got some of the best folks in the world to
help them rank the parks: scores of park staff, scientists, environmentalists, etc. The
folks who know
what they are talking about. They rank the parks from best to worst not just in terms if whether the park is great or
not, but also according to whether the park is facing pressures from over-visitation, pollution, infrastructure
degradation and so on. Parks
like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Carlsbad Caverns, the list suggests, are being loved to death.

This is an excellent piece that really shed some light for me on what is going on in the parks system, and it could be
used as an excellent guide to help you determine which park to visit for your next vacation.