Haven't heard too much about if I'm sending the right size groups of pictures? I know breaking up the narrative like this will make it more difficult to save as one piece (tho' I do have it as one piece if any are interested?), but thought this would make the pictures more fitting to what was just read. 
Our next destination was Carlsbad, New Mexico. We spent the night in a nearby town so we could have most of a day in the caverns. They are so-o amazing - bigger, more intricate, such variety - if you haven't been, it is hard to imagine that such a thing even exists. There is a huge limestone mountain ridge that was apparently an ancient sea bed and immersed in water for ages past. The geological layers below it had the chemistry to dissolve lime and percolated huge holes along the fault lines inside the limestone monoliths. The biggest room is in the ground as far as a 75 story building, but the bottom of that room is still 46 feet higher than the main desert floor we drove across to arrive at the mountains. And this room is as long as several football fields and 255 feet in the highest place. The park service has put in over 1200 lights that create a glow in many areas as they highlight specific formations. Of course, the space would naturally have a total absence of light so the pitch black corners make one want to speak in whispers. Most of the visitors seem to have an almost reverent demeanor as we feel like we're in a natural cathedral, in the presence of one of the great wonders of the world. 
That's me over looking the nipple :-). It is hard to tell how big the formations are, but some of these pillars are actually several feet thick and since they're all the way to the ceiling, they just tower over us. This particular cave is in a sort of suspended animation at this moment in geologic history as the area surrounding these mountains has been quite dry. If the climate changes and the years are very wet, it reactivates the dripping water and the column and icicle building resume.