After our visit to Big Bend National Park, we continued west through the Chihuahuan Desert towards the foothills of the Guadalupe mountains. You would never guess that this desolate landscape contains over 300 known caves beneath its surface! Luckily, over 120 of these caves are part of Carlsbad Caverns National Park where you can see some of the best preserved and most accessible cave complexes in the world.
Just like the area around Big Bend, southeastern New Mexico is also pretty remote. We camped in the small town of Carlsbad, but it was still about 23 miles from our RV park to the entrance sign for Carlsbad Caverns National Park. From there we continued on for 7 miles up a winding road to the visitor center. This is where the hub of activity is and where we always start our exploration. You don’t need tickets or reservations to enter the park itself, but you will need them for the tours and activities.
At the visitor center you can watch the 16-minute park film called “Hidden Worlds” which plays every 30 minutes. There are also many exhibits that help you understand the history of the park and how the caverns were formed. We always make sure to stamp our national parks passport book at the gift shop when we are checking out the souvenirs. There is also a snack bar if you are hungry before or after your time in the caverns.
The biggest attraction at Carlsbad Caverns National Park is, of course, the caverns. You can opt to see the caves via either a self-guided tour or a ranger-guided tour. Reservations are required for both types of tours and can be purchased between 48 hours and 30 days ahead of time online at recreation.gov. Tickets for the self-guided tour were the only ones available for the date we visited.
We chose to enter the cave at the Natural Entrance , which is the area where the cave was first discovered. After a quick briefing by a park ranger, we were admitted to the cave opening and followed the 1.25-mile one-way trail as it wound its way down deep into the earth. The pathway is paved but has some steep sections and lots of switchbacks as you descend 750 feet into the dark cavern. We enjoyed being able to go at our own pace to view the formations and exhibits. You can also rent an audio headset to give you more information as you walk along the trail.
Even though this first trail is very interesting, the real showstopper in the cavern is found once you reach the bottom. There you can follow a 1.25-mile flatter trail that leads you on a circular route through the amazing Big Room. This large limestone chamber is 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 255 feet high. You could fit over 6 football fields inside it! Although it is not the biggest or longest cave in North America, it has the distinction of being the largest single cave chamber by volume.
The Big Room has hundreds of cool formations and delicate sculptures. We saw stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, cave popcorn, cave bacon, soda straws, cave pools, and so many more underground wonders. There are park rangers stationed at several areas in case you have questions along the way. I’m glad I brought my jacket as the cave is a constant 56 degrees (and humid!) year-round. We easily spent several hours exploring this fun place and were happy to hear that there is an elevator ride to get back up the 7 stories to the ground level.
While the Big Room is certainly the most popular attraction at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, it is definitely not the only thing to see or do there. If you book a reservation ahead of time, there are also more challenging hikes on some of the special ranger-led tours. These exciting tours will allow you to see areas deeper in the caverns and some even require hiking boots and crawling.
In the summer months, you might enjoy attending a bat flight talk at the amphitheater and then watching as hundreds of thousands of Brazilian free-tailed bats make their nightly exit flight from the natural entrance of the cavern. Normally, there are also several hikes and scenic drives that you can do outside of the caverns, but historic flooding in August 2022 caused major damage to the area. Check the park website for updates on when restoration work will be completed (as of this writing, estimated completion dates are summer 2024).
If you drive this far to see Carlsbad Caverns National Park, you should also plan to visit Guadalupe National Park. It is about an hour away from Carlsbad, just over the Texas state line. We were looking forward to hiking the strenuous 8.4-mile trail up Guadalupe Peak –the highest peak in the state of Texas at 8,749 feet. However, when we arrived the whole park was closed due to an ongoing search and rescue operation to recover two men who were rock climbing in a restricted area and fell. We did find a beautiful side trail but will have to return for the rest another time.
Even so, we enjoyed our trip to this desert area and marveled at the enormity and beauty of the caverns in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It was definitely worth the drive to see this spectacular wonder of nature deep underground.
Those types of caverns are SO cool and I was always sad we missed seeing Carlsbad. I love the way they light everything up down there. It add to the dramatic effect (and the picture of you guys is great). Glad you enjoyed it – but I also totally understand why you were happy to get back to fresh air and blue skies!
We’ve been to several other caverns, but this one was very cool! It’s amazing to think that there are so many caves underground when on top it just looks like more desert. I’m glad to hear that y’all are still enjoying Portugal😊
This place is definitely on my list, it looks SO COOL! I’d love to see the bats too! (The inside of the cavern actually looks a little like Wind Cave National Park up here in western South Dakota.)
That’s cool that you live near Wind Cave National Park. We wanted to see that one too, but when we were in South Dakota it was still closed due to covid. I’m sure we will get there eventually. I hope you can make it to Carlsbad Caverns–it’s definitely worth the trip!
Those caverns are amazing! Some really remarkable pictures too. I might feel a little intimidated to go that deep and far downward into the earth, but what an adventure. Great post and thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks, Sandi. We really enjoyed the caverns and all of the unique formations. It makes me think some of Luray Caverns in Virginia. Have you ever been there? We visited many years ago when we were stationed at the Pentagon and the kids were little.