Dates we visited: March 30th – April 3rd
Where we stayed: Carlsbad KOA
Carlsbad Caverns National Park sits in the southeastern corner of New Mexico, just above the border of Texas. Having just visited White Sands National Park, we took the southern route from Las Cruces, down through El Paso, and then back up to Carlsbad. This caused us to go from the mountain time zone, into the central time zone, and then back to mountain. There’s nothing particularly interesting about that, except that we didn’t register it at the time and it took us a full day to realize we were living life off by one hour. Time zones are hard.
While this park offers much more than it’s namesake caverns, the trek underground is pretty much the main event. When we visited Wind Cave National Park last year, we were unable to enter the caves due to covid restrictions. But Carlsbad was open, with with some appropriate safety precautions. Most notably, masks, and an advanced reservation were required to enter the caverns.
The Hike Down
We made a 9:30am reservation to enter via the “Natural Entrance” route. This route involves a 1.25 mile hike down 750 feet (the equivalent of a 75 story building). We had a blast on this route, and Owen walked about 95% of it on his own. The journey down is surreal and other-worldly, with plenty of spots to pause, take a break, and soak in the somewhat ominous surroundings.
Kristy has a bit of claustrophobia, so she was a little nervous about this park. Most of the route is very large and open though, and there were only a few spots where she said she was uncomfortable. We were able to quickly move past those passages into more open spaces.
While it is allowable to hike back up the trail (the one that is equivalent to a 75 story building…), we chose to take the elevator ride back to the visitor center. There is also an option to ride the elevator down, rather than hike down, if that is more appealing to you. If you do that, it will drop you into the “Big Room” which has a mile long route of its own, and is much more level terrain. It’s a great option if you want to save time, or are not interested or able, to complete the somewhat strenuous hike down.
The Caverns
What is generally referred to as the “Caverns” is actually one huge system of interconnected rooms and passages. As we worked our way down and through the system I was awestruck by the thought of what it must have been like for early explorers in the 1910’s to spelunk through the caves without knowing what was around the next corner. There are numerous pits and passages, not too mention rooms of both small and massive scale.
The whole system is filled with stalactites, stalagmites, flowrock, and other rock formations unique to the cave ecosystem. Some of these formations are millions of years in the making. As you hear the slow dripping of water throughout the cave, it’s difficult to wrap one’s mind around the geologic time scale of the formation of these caverns.
Carlsbad Caverns was a great experience for all three of us. Owen was fascinated by the entire affair, and he took his Junior Ranger responsibilities very seriously by continuously reminding us to speak only in whispers while underground. If you can bring yourself to overcome the natural human aversion to journeying deep underground, and staying there for several hours, don’t miss this fantastic National Park.
Carlsbad Caverns Gallery
How does a 1.25 mile hike down 750 feet into the earth on a slippery and dimly lit trail sound to you? Well it sounded like fun to us, so that’s what we did to check out Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The hike was totally worth it though, the caverns were other-worldly.
