Return to Carlsbad Caverns — Part 2

Rock of Ages

As you’ll recall from Monday, we are this week taking a second look at Carlsbad Caverns.  This time, however, we’re relying upon advances in digital photography to produce handheld images that were all but impossible just two years ago.  Whereas my July 2011 photoblog on Carlsbad relied upon techniques for taking long exposures without a tripod, on this trip I instead relied upon the Handheld Night Scene mode built into the Canon G1 X.

Top of the Big Room — 255 feet (78 meters)

Most of today’s pictures are of the Big Room — the largest portion of the caverns.  The hallmarks of the Big Room are the immense columns reaching high above the cavern trails and the “Top of the Cross,” the point on the ceiling of the cavern that is the highest above the Big Room floor.  “Top of the Cross” is an intimidating 255 feet (78 meters) above, and one shudders when looking at photographs of the spelunkers who hung suspended beneath it during an expedition back in the 1970s.

Immense Column

As always, just click on any of the images below to bring up an album showing enlarged versions:

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Twin Columns

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