Santa Fe to Carlsbad, NM

Santa Fe to Carlsbad, NM
We left in the morning on route 285 after coming out of the Santa Fe Mountains. It was cold last night there was frost all over the windshield of the Jeep and the top. We were however at about 8500 feet I think so that is not so remarkable.
Hwy 285 was sometimes two lane and sometimes four lane wandering in more or less a perfectly straight line over the grasslands. For much of it there were no farms, ranches or anything else for that matter. Just a lot of lots and lots. There were low hills but mostly it was flat with possibly climbing a few mesas just outside Santa Fe.
As we approached Artesia, NM things started to change with irrigation and you could see the large fields of hay that are irrigated in a circular fashion. Then to we are now in the oil and gas region of NM with oil and gas wells and pipelines dotting the landscape. Artesia itself seemed to be a major refining city.
Let me say that we made it thru Roswell without so much as seeing an ET person or spaceship. I think that it must be the off season or maybe the schedule only runs at night. You know how those red eyes can be. Ah well, Bev was disappointed but we had to move on. They did have a really large New Mexico Military Institute in Carlsbad which was quite impressive with its architecture.
Then it was onto White’s City on Hwy 180 and Hwy 62. Really this is only a gas station, hotel/motel and RV park just outside the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. But there is no RV park inside the Park so this is where we are spending the night. We drove up to the Caverns before sunset and just got there in time to see the bats coming out of the natural entrance to the cave. Really quite impressive even though this is not the best time of year to do so as they have started to migrate south. Sorry but no pictures were allowed of the bats leaving the cave but they really did fill up the sky.
Tomorrow we will again go to the Caverns to take a tour and do some more cave exploring. I understand that one of the best places to see is the Palace. Oh well that is all for now.
1-2 The desert
3 The Chisolm trail
4 Refinery
5 Roswell