CARLSBAD CAVERNS

Last Updated on September 12, 2023 by

Carlsbad Caverns

Evidence within the cave indicates Native American Mescalero Apache and Zuni Pueblo were aware of this cave for hundreds if not thousands of years. Early Spanish and European settlers also discovered the cave as they expanded into the southwestern desert. However, it took a sixteen year old cowboy named Jim White in 1898 to begin documenting his explorations of the cave. Today his legacy continues with names such as ‘Devil’s Armchair’, ‘Devil’s Den’, and the more mundane ‘Big Room’ and ‘Left Hand Tunnel’.

How much time should I spend?
The NPS Site recommends an hour for the Natural Entrance trail and an hour and a half for exploration of the Big Room. We spent a little over four hours. Plan to factor in significant drive time to get to the park entrance.

Magnificent. We’ve been to several caves at this point, but the scale of Carlsbad is magnitudes larger by far than anything we’ve seen. The winding path from the visitor center to the base of the cave descends almost 1300 feet, about the height of the Empire State Building, and covers a little over a mile. Once you reach the base of the cave, the path around the Big Room Trail is an additional mile and a quarter followed by a 1300′ elevator ride directly into the gift shop – just like Disney World.

Of course, true to most national parks, you can skip the entrance trail and just take the elevator down and up and the Big Room has a shortcut reducing it’s trail by over half. Or, if you’re a look-at-me type, you can skip the elevator altogether and hike the mile and a quarter uphill right back out. We were not those people – walking down, exploring the Big Room and elevatoring up was right on time.

The formations of stalactites and stalagmites are pretty standard cave fare except for the scope and scale. Some of them are 30 and 40 feet high (or long) and there are several that are simply massive. What is unusual about this cave compared to others we have seen is it is almost completely monochromatic with very few minerals to create any type of color. Despite that, the sheer magnitude of the cave more than makes up for the lack of color.

Possibly my favorite ‘vignette’ in the cave is entirely manmade though. At some point in the 80’s, three dudes with a spelunking permit flew a rope attached to helium balloons to another cave entrance within the cave about 120 feet from the main cave floor. Once the rope was at its highest point, they pulled on the rope in the hopes it would wrap itself around on of the stalactites. From there, one intrepid climber hoisted himself up to see what there was to see. While the rope is still in place, it has never been climbed again, nor has the cave itself been explored beyond that first knucklehead. ‘Merica.

When we got our tickets, the Ranger told us to expect to spend about 2 and a half hours total working our way down and around the Cavern. At about the halfway point of the Big Room circuit, we both realized we were getting pretty plucky, but discounted it as having had a light breakfast. Once we got to the top, and we headed to the café for food, we realized we had been on the trail for over four hours!
It’s not often we are so engaged in a trail that we completely lose track of time. Of course, it’s also completely unheard of for Angela to travel without food for ANY length of time, but anything other than water is verboten in the cavern, so that may have thrown us off of our game.

I am bummed that we missed the bats. During the summer, between 200 and 500 THOUSAND bats live in the cave, rising to nearly a million at the height of migration. Tens of thousands leave every night in search of food. There is an amphitheater right at the base of the cave entrance to watch them either depart or arrive. As creepy as it might be, I think it would be an absolutely incredible scene.

Did you know?
A disease known as white nose syndrome is plaguing bats across North America. Since it was first discovered in 2006, tens of millions have been killed by this fungus. Please, when you are asked to walk across the bio-cleaning mats on your exit from the cavern, take it seriously.

Carlsbad

The only downside to visiting the Caverns is Carlsbad itself. It’s a sad little town with very little going for it that we could see. Of course, it is also probable that it is just the way they like it.

We did manage to find an excellent burger joint, the Lucky Bull Grill, which seemed to be the one place in the downtown area open for lunch, and if you’re looking for haute cuisine, there’s a Subway. A quick Google search will surely identify some other places to eat, but don’t expect a whole lot of hustle and bustle in this sleepy little town that seems to be just barely hanging on.

It’s also over a half an hour to get to the Caverns and there isn’t another town in any direction for miles. Alas, the story of desert travels.