April | 2009 | Journey Of One

Day Two – April 7th, 2009

I stayed at a very rundown motel in Carlsbad. Next time, I would plan to stay in El Paso or Albequerque, then drive over. I didn’t even shower as it was quiet rundown. No worries.

Carlsbad Cavern Entrance

Carlsbad Cavern Descent

This was the most amazing place I’ve ever been to. It was very quiet inside and felt like a church cathedral. I plan to go back again.

Carlsbad Cavern Stalagmites

These photos really don’t do it justice. There is a very large main interior cavern with a HUGE boulder balancing on the ground. Apparently it fell from the ceiling thousands of years ago.

Carlsbad Cavern Interior

After the caverns I drove through Albequerque and to the UFO Museum in Roswell. It was a fun place to walk around for a short while. I wish I had planned more time for this trip so I could get a better feel for the towns and places I drove through.

UFO Museum Exterior

UFO Museum Interior

Plan

In April of 2009 I devised a plan to travel from Austin, TX and drive through the desert southwest and on back home. I was about to transition to a new job and I thought it’s now or never to see the Grand Canyon and many other places. Other the course of a couple weeks I built an itinerary and made reservations at various motels along the way. It was a very exciting experience and I saw things I was never aware of that existed.

The trip lasted five days from April 6-10, 2009. I drove my Jeep Grand Cherokee and thankfully it didn’t break down at any point, although I had horrendous mechanical issues since that time that were very pricey, resulting in my plan to never buy a Jeep again. Anyway, I finally got around to writing a blog post about the experience 8 years later. I pulled all of the photos into Lightroom, did some editing, and picked the best ones for this blog. All photos were taken with a Canon Powershot SD870 IS. It was a decent camera to take photos with at the time. However, it is not a “pro” camera and had trouble with indoor shots. I plan to take this trip again in the future and capture some really nice photos.

Here is the general route I took (just a quick scribble)…

Southwest Adventure Route Map

Day One – April 6, 2009

I fueled up my vehicle and headed out towards I-10 with my first destination being Caverns of Sonora. This was a perfect pit stop along the way. I highly recommend going here if you can. They provide a nice guided tour.