Taking the family for an overnight trip to see the caverns,zoo etc What is a must see and good grub???

Lets see... theres some cactus, sand, buzzards and thats about all.

surely u jest?

7mag, been over 30 years for me but I'd say take the cavern tour with the "big room" being the main draw. If memory serves me, nearly .5 mile in size. Also, don't miss the amphitheater seating when the millions of bats venture out at sundown. Awesome...

Here is a link about the Living Desert State Park.

http://www.stateparks.com/living_desert_state_park_in_new_mexico.html

That is a pretty good thing to see. My son really enjoyed it.

It's been only about 25 for me but the bats are awesome. I still remember the whole trip, you'll enjoy it.

the living desert os a good place to see, as far as eats goes, danny's bbq in carlsbad. dragon not bad for chinease, check out calloways for breakfast.

Don't forget the Oasis in the desert just South of Pecos. Cool swimming hole and snorkleing.

I carried my family when my kids were 10 & 13.The worst place I ever took them. it was just o old hole that stunk bad. Never would take someone there again.

I have been a couple of times way back. Was always pretty clear and clean.

Reckon it was cause by low flow on drought year?

well, just came in. Great two days with the family. Here's a take on what we did. Got there yesterday. Went to the zoo. At first I was a tad leary and a skeptic. It was pretty cool zoo. The drive up was also nice. Spent the morning there. Grabbed Pizza Hut and we were off.

Then off to the Caverns. Once again cool drive. I forgot one thing. It was Memorial day weekend. OMG, hundreds of people. We took the self guided tour to the big room. Pretty cool I must admit. I guess it's something you need to do once. My youngest loved it. Worn out when we got back in to town. BTW, stay in the nicer newer hotels. There are some real cheesy ones there.

Today we went to the river. Carlsbad has it set up pretty cool. City type park and they don't charge for hardly nothing. Plenty of tables, shade, beech area, boat docks etc all free. We did the boat ride up the Pecos. It was cool, enjoyed it. Carlsbad isnt what I imagined it to be. Really a place I would consider retiring. Has a bit of everything.

7Mag, sounds like you had a good time. Did you not see the bats release? Do you recall how large the Big Room is, .5 mile-1.0 mile? Good times.

Been a couple of times, went in 84 with the Boy Scouts and got to go spelunk some of the caves not open to the general public. I always loved Carlsbad, been trying to talk my wife into it, but the hill country is about as far as she wants to go west. She needs trees, Wish I could sway her had a couple of good job offers that would move me back to Odessa. I miss that part of Texas alot. You can take the boy out of West Texas, but you can't take West Texas out of the boy.

Didn't stay around for the bats. We were worn out. Big room is half mile and 75 stories down

fun

I drove through there last week, on my way to Ruidoso. I got skeert and fled as fast as I could.

You see, I stopped at a traffic light and looked to my left. There was a great big fat girl in a white Ford Explorer making googly eyes at me.

When the light turned, I pulled away slowly. Fat girl had the back of her Explorer covered in stickers. One blamed men for the reason that she's a b*tch and another read "Save a horse Ride a cowboy". That's the one that really skeert me. This girl had to go 400 lbs on the hoof.

I hammered down and got out of the there before she tried riding me.