Carlsbad Caverns

Spelunking one of the largest caves in the world

Have you ever been to Disney World or Las Vegas? Well, this place is basically a natural version of one of these larger than life destinations, but over 750 feet down. This cave in the Guadalupe Mountain Range is huge and there are several different tours you can take once underground. It’s very difficult to see all of it in one day due to tour timing, so if you want to see every corner, we would recommend planning a two or three-day trip. We only had time for one day of spelunking, so this is how we saw as much as we could:

First, sign up for the tours you want ahead of time online. We had to book about three weeks out. Unfortunately, the elevators were out of service when we went, so they only ran each guided tour once a day meaning we had to pick one. We chose the Left-Hand Tunnel tour because this is a ranger-led tour where you get to explore some of the undeveloped cave with a lantern. This was a cool comparison to the well-lit portions of the cave you can explore in a self-guided manner.

8:00 a.m. – Arrive at the Carlsbad Caverns visitor’s center because this is when it opens. The cavern temperature is consistently high 50s F, so make sure you have appropriate clothing.

8:30 a.m. – They open the doors for you to enter the cave at the east end of the visitor’s center! Even if the elevators are working, we highly recommend you take the Natural Entrance Route to get down into the cave. It’s 1.25 miles of switchbacks to get to where all the tours begin. The park recommends one hour for this hike, but it took us about 30 minutes.

Entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns

Natural Entrance Trail – Switchbacks down into the coolest cave I’ve seen!

Entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns

Natural Entrance Trail – Switchbacks down into the coolest cave I’ve seen!

Not only is this an active way to get down into the cave, but there are so many amazing formations to see along the way. Like this one that looks like a human finger at the top. And this one that they call the “Boneyard.” This trail also provides a true understanding of just how far into the earth you are going and how grand this cave system really is.

A very “finger-like” stalagmite! 

“The Boneyard”

A very “finger-like” stalagmite! 

“The Boneyard”

9:00-10:30 a.m. – Explore the Big Room Route which is another self-guided trail that starts right at the end of the Natural Entrance.  This hike is flat and about 1.25 miles. It’s all about the scenery because this is the largest cave chamber in the country (the size of 16 football fields), so give yourself time to enjoy it and take pictures. Of course, pictures can’t quite capture the grandness of this cave, but here are a few that we took anyway: 

“Hall of Giants” – where Adam belongs 🙂

This picture can’t quite capture how huge this cave really is (300 ft high ceiling at one point)!

“Rock of Ages”

More crazy formations – Anyone see jellyfish?

They’re almost touching!

“Hall of Giants” – where Adam belongs 🙂

This picture can’t quite capture how huge this cave really is (300 ft high ceiling at one point)!

“Rock of Ages”

More crazy formations – Anyone see jellyfish?

They’re almost touching!

Pack some snacks because they don’t have many food options underground.

10:30-11:00 a.m. – This is when most of the guided tours start. As we mentioned above, we chose the Left Hand Tunnel Tour which was awesome because we used candle-lit lanterns for the entire thing. 

Lantern-lit cave tour!

Exploring some of the undeveloped cave!

Lantern-lit cave tour!

Exploring some of the undeveloped cave!

At the end of the tunnel, we all blew out our candles and sat in true darkness, which was one of the coolest experiences we’ve had. There aren’t many times where you can’t even see your hand in front of your face. It was nice to have a knowledgeable ranger along who pointed out things like fossils that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Fossils

1:00 p.m. – If it works out timing-wise, do another tour! The King’s Palace is a popular tour of more developed cave. There are more intense tours where you can do some cave crawling too, but these aren’t always offered. If another tour isn’t an option, meander back up the Natural Entrance Trail or take the elevator up if it is working.

If you come here in late summer, it sounds worth it to stay for the bat flight program which happens nightly at dusk. In April, there are only a handful of bats that exit the cave, but by the end of summer, there can be up to a million bats exiting the cave each night!

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