Having not had much chance to see the caves last night, we returned to Carlsbad Caverns this morning. We checked the dogs back into the kennel service, where Zahara ran straight for her kennel from yesterday despite the fact that there were bigger kennels now available. To help the settle in, we had bought them both bones which they eagerly set about consuming. Meanwhile, we returned to the caves to explore.
My father and I entered through the Natural Entrance while my mother rode the elevator and revisited the Great Hall. We met in the rest area afterward, picked up the dogs and headed west towards the Guadalupe Mountains National Forest and the Permian Reef.
We took a short break to check out the visitor center and let the dogs play, but while there were tons of highly recommended hiking trails, it was already too late in the day to go on any of them. With almost 7 hours of driving still ahead of us and it already being mid afternoon, we elected to just head home. This is definitely a place I’d like to revisit with my dogs, though.
Permian Reef
The dogs were delighted to be home, to see my roommate and my parents’ dog, and to once again have ready access to their own back yard. I imagine by tomorrow they’ll be missing the new environments and constant activity this trip afforded them. Vacationing with my dogs is definitely going to be a new and enduring part of my life!
