The last week of May, Gabi and I went on a big road trip to the Wild West. We visited four national parks and one tribal park. Our first destination was the Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. It’s in the Guadalupe Mountains. We arrived before sunset, just in time to watch the hundreds of thousands of Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) emerged from the cave in search of food. To protect the bats, electronic devices are not allowed so I didn’t take any pictures, but it was a great experience nonetheless. The primary attraction of the park is the caves so we went back to the park next day and hiked the largest limestone chamber of the park, named simply the Big Room. It has many beautiful rock formations. Here’s a small gallery of some of my favorites. All images were taken with my Canon EOS 7D camera and my 17-40mm lens on my Manfrotto tripod.