Living Desert State Park, Carlsbad

I am from Australia and was visiting New Mexico. While passing thru Carlsbad my friend told me I had to see the Living Desert. Although the park actually closed at 5.00pm we arrrived at 3.40pm. 10 minutes after the last visitors were allowed entry. We walked in hoping that we would still be allowed thru. There was no one at the door so we walked on thru to the doors leading out to the park. While we were outside a lady approached us and said we were too late and had to leave. We explained that I was from Australia and had to leave Carlsbad the next day. We were hoping to have a look around. She was very rude and told us that we didnt ring the bell when we walked in the front door. We didnt even see a bell. Again we asked if we could look around seeing the park didnt close for another hour or so and we would be very quick. Again she told us to leave and we could not look around any longer. We left very disappointed that I did not get a chance to see any animals or plants that I had been told were there. This woman left a very bad impression on us about the park. She was not appologetic about the fact that we had come all this way and missed out by 10 minutes and did not even try to help us out in any way.