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Carlsbad, New Mexico

The next exhibit I encounter is called the Bottomless Pit. Of course, you are thinking, there just had to be such a sight in this cave, something to spark the hidden fears that lurk deep down inside each and every one of us. Yes, the Bottomless Pit does a good job of doing just that.

Unfortunately, the park thought it best to tell us all about it, bozos! They'd be better off saying they have yet to determine the depth of the pit, lacking the equipment to measure such depths. Perhaps they could also say that some people who have descended into the pit have been known to not come back. And those that do, they come back completely insane.

Oh well. Throwing cold water on the potential excitement of this sight, the pit is 140-feet deep and another cavity runs 230-feet upwards into the ceiling. The first photo in the second row is that of the pit and the remaining two are that of the overhead cavity.

Bats live in Liberty Dome, the upper cavity. For safety sake, after reading this placard, I'd advise people to use an umbrella when visiting the Bottomless Pit.

Believe it or not, there is life here is such remote recesses.

Moving along, I encounter several slabs of gypsum. How they got deposited here is a bit of a mystery. I suspect alien involvement.