Carlsbad Caverns National Park

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If you've been following along, you know that we've visited a number of caves on this trip. Going into it I had no idea that multiple national parks were either focused on or included caves.

Well, here we are again at a park with a cave. Or as they call them here, "caverns."


Carlsbad Caverns National Park has a few hiking trails on the surface, but the reason people come here is to either: 1) Go into the caverns, or 2) Watch the bats fly out of the caverns. Or most likely, both.

It was too late in the year for us to see the bats come out at dusk (they have already left for a warmer locale), but we were excited to get into the caverns. We were starting to get a little bit jaded towards caves, but we had heard good things about this one.

Descending into the abyss...

We have seen big caves, and we've seen caves with formations. But this was our first big cave with formations.

The descent into the cave (or caverns, if you prefer) was about 750 feet. If you are a hiker, you know that 750 feet in elevation change over a short distance is no joke. And this was a descent into the earth (though strangely enough, we were descending into the plateau upon which the park is situated; at the bottom of the cave we were still above ground outside the park).




The walk around the public portion of the cave was just over a mile. It was a loop, and upon completion you could choose to walk back out the way you entered, or you can take an elevator to the surface. Walking down 750 feet is one thing. Walking back up is quite another. We chose the elevator!
Location: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Carlsbad, NM 88220, USA

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