Road Trip Quilt Along Day 44, Carlsbad Caverns - Star of the West Block

 Today's block is Star of the West.  I like this one, it's not too hard to sew, and has a great swirling movement!

This is my 3 inch version. Now, let's check out today's destination!

The drive to Carlsbad Caverns is very nice - pretty scenery everythere!

It was another beautiful day!  

As you arrive, the view is stunning!  You can see for miles around!  We entered the park's visitors center to check in for our scheduled entrance time.  We opted to walk down, so followed the trail around to the natural entrance.

This is where people can sit to watch the bats leave the cave in the evening!  

When you first enter the cave, there is some smell, but the bats don't go down into the deepest part of the cave, so that only lasts for a short time.

The walk down is extremely steep is over a mile long!  It's the equivalent of walking down a 75 story building!  It will make your toes hurt if they slide around in your shoe!

There was a lot to see on the way down before we even got to the big cave!

The big cave was really amazing!  Pictures really don't do it justice!

It was so interesting!  The trail around the cave is another 1 1/4 miles long, so we did plenty of walking today!

I think this is the formation we called Jabba the Hut!  It was fun to come up with our own names for the things we saw!  It wasn't very busy when we were there, so it was nice to take our time and just look at everything to our hearts content. 

It really is an amazing place to visit!  You just can't capture the scope of the size of the cave in pictures.

On the way back to the hotel, we noticed a dam.  We were glad to get back to our room, and take our shoes off!  My poor husband had a very sore toe, and mine were a little sore, but not too bad.  It was worth it, though!

3 inch version,

Six inch block

Nine inch block.  Notice I made sure the directional fabric in the corner blocks all faced the same way.  It's a nice touch to the block, I think!