Exploring Carlsbad--the town

We've visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park, but we found that the town of Carlsbad is 30 miles north of the cave. So we planned a day to drive into town and see what we could find in Carlsbad, New Mexico. One of the first places to explore was the Carlsbad irrigation flume.

Built in 1903, it carries water from the Pecos River to irrigate farmland in this area. At the time it was built, it was largest concrete structure in the world. Of course, Mark had to hike to the top, and stand on this largest structure.

From there he could see the irrigation water flowing right beside him, while the Pecos River was flowing at a 90-degree angle down below.

This flume was once featured on "Ripley's Believe It or Not" as the only river that crosses over itself. Down the river about 200 feet from us was a spring. In 1899 a young doctor thought this mineral spring was medicinal and similar to the one in Karlsbad, Austria. This little town dreamed of becoming a world class spa, so the citizens voted to change the town name from "Eddy" to "Carlsbad." And to think, the cave down the road could have been called Eddy Caverns National Park.

Our next stop in town is another state park--but not one with a lake and campground. This is the Living Desert State Park, with living animals and plants on display.

Here we saw the first pronghorns of this year's travels.

The prairie puppies were displaying some cute adolescent behaviors that were fun to watch.

While the adult prairie dogs were sleeping in the sun, this puppy was giving mom a little kiss on her forehead.

Part of the Living Desert displays were inside, and we're glad to say that the real big-eared bats aren't quite as big as this proto-type.

The indoor displays included this sinister desert rattlesnake that was coiled up.

That's a close-up of one of the most sinister faces in the desert. We were glad to have that thick piece of glass as a safety barrier between him and us.

The pond was full of animals, including the pointy-nosed soft-shell turtle and his hard-shelled cousin turtle.

It's hard to take pictures through the chain link fence, but this bobcat woke up from his nap and put on a show for us.

He was right next door to the napping mountain lions. They looked all snuggly. But when this big guy glared into the camera, Denisa thought his face looked as sinister as the rattlesnake.

Another indoor display is the succulent garden, where some of the displayed cactus have grown to touch the high glass ceiling.

A relative of the ocotillo, this cactus has gotten enough moisture to sprout some green leaves among its rows of spines.

Mark used the cactus as a frame, to take Denisa's blurry picture. It can climb up to 120 degrees inside this greenhouse. While the cacti love it, we took off our coats in a hurry while were inside.

After leaving the Living Desert, we headed to the Pecos River that flows through the town of Carlsbad.

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride, and the sidewalks make a loop that encircles the river park. While there were few human walkers, we encountered lots of feathered walkers that were a little reluctant to make way for a couple bikers.

We saw a good variety of ducks, who didn't mind us taking close-up photos.

The back of this mallard was covered with iridescent purple feathers that shined in the afternoon sunlight.

We saw a few examples of mergansers with their mullet-like head feathers. . .

and ducks with their long spoon bills along the river.

One side of the river edged the town's golf course, where rock walls meant that fewer ducks were waddling on the path.

We were following a route on the all-trails app, so we thought that this was a loop ride. But when we rode our bikes up the incline, we found that this railroad bridge was part of the loop.

Signs on the railroad bridge let us know that our trail guide was breaking some rules to continue on this loop.

But a local that saw our hesitation assured us that everyone walks across the railroad bridge. There is even a pedestrian lane that separated us from the tracks with a wooden rail. Denisa didn't stop for this picture because she was wanting off that bridge before a train roared by us in these close quarters.

After successfully completing the loop, we put up the bicycles to do some walking in the river-view park with its floating bridge.

We enjoyed our day exploring the little town of Carlsbad, New Mexico. While many people just stay here to explore the famous caverns, we think it deserves a flume-Living desert-bike ride-kind-of-day all of its own.