Carlsbad Caverns geological story began 265 million years ago with the creation of a 400 mile long reef, due to tectonic uplifts and movement the sponge work gradually enlarged into huge chambers.

At sunset, hundreds of bats leave to find food. They swirled out of the cave, it was beautiful to watch. The following day we went to explore the cavern and did the Natural entrance trail. The hike down took less then 1 hour but I enjoyed following in the footsteps of early explorers. We went down 229m and saw formations such as the Whale’s mouth and Iceberg Rock. According to volume it is the largest single cave chamber in North America. The formations inside the cave were spectacular, from popcorn shapes to sharp cones, all different sizes and shapes.

Santa Fe was a stunning, it is New Mexico’s capital and sits in the Sangre de Cristo foothills. I loved all the adobe buildings, street art and pueblo architecture. I spent my time exploring shops, the Basilica and having coffee. It has a creative culture too, with many art galleries. There is a rich Hispanic and Indian pueblo history, which is visible throughout the city.

Roswell is a quirky city in Southeastern, New Mexico. It is well known for being the site of an alleged 1947 a UFO crash. I went to the International UFO museum and Research centre to explore further. Inside the museum, was lots of evidence and testimonies from people. It was interesting, but I loved their UFO McDonalds more.