Find Your Park: Cruising Through Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

Growing up, I was a big fan of the computer game Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? One of the places that Carmen often turned up in was Carlsbad Caverns - this is how the words spelunking and guano became part of my vocabulary at a rather early age. So Cat and I were both super excited to finally see the caverns in person! It was beyond anything I could have imagined - otherworldly, really. It was difficult to get pictures in the low lighting that could really capture just how huge the caverns were, and all of the bizarre and beautiful details within.

We were rushing to get there from Santa Fe in time to be able to walk down the trail from the Natural Entrance instead of taking the elevator. We made it with just minutes to spare (Cat asked if she had time to go to the bathroom as we arrived. I responded, perhaps a tad over-dramatically: "RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!"), and are SO GLAD that we did! The trail is steep, wet and winding, but it gives you access to a part of the cavern that most people do not see. I definitely recommend timing your trip so that you can take the trail down, and then take the elevator back up. Also, learn from our mistake and leave plenty of time (at least 2.5-3 hours) to fully explore the caves.

A formation known as Whale Mouth.

You're not allowed to touch the formations in the cave, so we did a lock of almost-touching for photos.

Cat was on Cave Watch. She wanted so badly to call the rangers on a group of obnoxiously loud visitors ahead of us.

The Hall of Giants

The Big Room