Carlsbad Caverns - Old Guano Trail

 

The Old Guano Trail at Carlsbad Caverns starts near the bat amphitheater by the visitor's center; we noticed the trailhead as we were hiking the Chihuahuan Nature Trail earlier. It's 3.7 miles to the town of White's City, supposedly following an old road the guano miners used a century ago. If so, I wouldn't want to travel that road! It was pretty skinny, and a bit steep in places.

Near the beginning you pass the opening Jim White blasted to make collecting guano (bat droppings used for fertilizer) from the cave easier. It's safely fenced off. 

It was a beautiful morning with a clear sky and a slight breeze. I guess it was a bit hazy, particularly over the mountains in the distance, but the weather was quite pleasant. That's always nice for hikes.

I enjoyed recognizing many of the flowers that we learned about earlier in the week, but except for ocotillo and sotol, don't expect me to remember their names! Oh, and prickly pear!!

sotol

ocotillo and prickly pear

We made it to White's City!

And then back to the car. With a few little side trips, our hike turned out to be 8 miles long and took us 3 1/2 hours. We're getting slow in our old age, but at least we're still moving!