Carlsbad Caverns National Park- Geological Wonders Abound
At A Glance
- What to Wear: Sturdy shoes, warm-ish clothes
- Hiking: Easy (1.25 miles) to Strenuous (Natural Entrance
at 1.25 miles) - Big Room Route is accessible!
- Note: Book a time to enter on recreation.gov
- Rating: 2/5 hiking boots
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is resplendent in underground formations ranging from improbable stalactites to towering stalagmites, which guide you around the Big Room that makes up the heart of the self-guided tour. Step out of the elevator (or down the natural entrance trail) and into a world of natural architecture hidden deep under the surface of the earth.
Getting to the Park/Where to Stay
With it’s close proximity to the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico, it makes the most sense to stay there when planning a visit to Carlsbad National Park. The park has no developed campgrounds but if that is more your speed both Whites City and Carlsbad have several options. Carlsbad also offers the most in the way of gas, dining, and other options, but be warned the pickings are slim. Both nights we stayed in Carlsbad, we struggled to find dining options where the wait wasn’t less that 45 minutes to an hour (and this on a weeknight in winter!). There are, however, plenty of grocery stores so cobbling something together in your hotel room if need be is certainly an option if all else fails.
Planning Your Visit
The most important thing to note when planning a visit to Carlsbad Caverns is that you must make reservations to enter the park on recreation.gov! The self-guided tour option is $1 to book and you select an entrance window during the booking process, but there is no time limit after you have entered the cave, although most visitors complete the tour in an hour and a half. This tour option gets you access to the Big Room by either the elevator in the visitor center or by the steep and strenuous natural cave entrance. You must also present your National Parks Pass or pay the entrance fee in addition to making this timed entry reservation.
During specific times of the year there is also a 90-min ranger led King’s Palace Tour that takes visitors through four chambers of the cave, which also must be booked through recreation.gov. In addition to the caves, there are a plethora of surface hiking trails in the park. Please remember that the surrounding Guadalupe Mountain and Chihuahuan Desert environments can be extreme and it’s important to bring sufficient water and food as the surface trails at Carlsbad Caverns are considered back country and there is no water source on the trails.
A Day In The Park
Activity -> Time to Allow For
- Visitor Center & Gift Shop -> 30 minutes – 1 hour
- Self-guided Big Room Tour (without Natural Entrance Route) -> 1.5-2 hours
- Check out my post on Guadalupe Mountain National Park for the rest of the day!
What to Do
Carlsbad Caverns offers, in addition to the caves and trails, programming centered on the Brazilian Free-Tailed bat population that call the aptly named Bat Cave home in the summer. This is a seasonal offering that occurs annually between approximately late May and October and includes a ranger talk about the bats before they embark on their nightly flight. The park offers plenty of guidance on this event on their website including an important note that no electronic devices are allowed during the program.
While working our way through the cave, there was mention on various signage of alternative tours that took the more adventurous visitors to other “levels” of the cave but, with the exception of the King’s Palace Tour mentioned above, all other tours are currently suspended. Check the ranger-guided tours page on the park site for updates.
My Thoughts
To be very honest, I am fairly claustrophobic and caves are really, really, really, not my thing (hence the 2/5 hiking boots rating). On a good day, elevators are enough to set me into a mild panic, so caves are a very hard sell. I am not being dramatic when I say that I literally sobbed the entire way down the steps into Mammoth Cave, which is to say if I wasn’t on a quest to visit every national park, I would not have ever planned a trip to this park.
However, it was a cool experience and the variety of formations within the cave were almost worth constant low-level panic for the duration our spin around the big room. But, no matter how unusual the rocks and other natural features are, you are in walking in a virtual circle and by the end, my party was slightly bored and more than ready to leave.
Despite my bias I think it’s worth a stop (combine it with Guadalupe Mountain, White Sands, and/or Big Bend) if only to see the majesty of the bats or cool off from the sweltering summer heat in the always 56°F caves.
Happy Hiking!
-Maggie
