Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico - August 6th, 2023

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is just across the state border from Guadalupe Mountains National Park. There are no campgrounds inside Carlsbad, but there are a few just outside the park. However, we opted to visit Carlsbad from Pine Springs Campground in Guadalupe Mountains in Texas. It is just a 45 minute drive away.

Sunday we drove up to Carlsbad Caverns to do the self-guided tour of the Big Room. We were there four years ago (Creatures and Caves - Carlsbad, New Mexico - July 17 & 18, 2019), but going into a cool cave to get out of the heat sounded like a wonderful idea.

We had reserved a timed-entry online a couple of weeks before. This was new. Four years ago, you just showed up and bought a ticket. Our entry time was for 12:30 pm, but we arrived at 10:30 am. Our plan was to hang out in the little cafe in the air conditioning and have lunch before our cave tour. When we arrived, we got in the long line to check in and get our little ticket. Since we had a National Parks Pass, the self-guided tour was no extra charge. Despite the long line, the person at the desk said it wasn’t that busy so we could go into the cave whenever we were ready.

After a casual lunch of pulled pork and a ham & cheese sandwich with chips and fountain drinks, we headed for the cave, not much before our scheduled time. We had a choice to enter through the natural entrance or take the elevator down. The Big Room is also 1.25 miles long, but takes an average of 1.5 hours to complete. The natural entrance is 1.2 miles long and takes an average of an hour to complete. Stay in a cool cave for an extra hour? We’ll take the natural entrance please!

When we visited before, we could enter and exit the cave multiple times. However, now with the new timed entry system, there is no re-entry. If you have the time, we recommend doing both the Natural Entrance and the Big Room. Although the Big Room has the majority of the interesting cave formations, the Natural Entrance gives you a better feel for how the original explorers entered the cave along with seeing all the cave swallows and where the bats exit the cave. We could have stretched our time inside the cave a little longer by taking the Natural Entrance back out, but it is steep and we planned on a strenuous hike the next day, so we took the elevator back out.

Even though we’ve toured the cave before, it still is very impressive and stunning, even the second time around. Unlike Mammoth Cave (Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky - June 16th to 19th, 2023) which is considered a dry cave, Carlsbad Caverns is a wet cave. That means that water is still actively dripping through the limestone, forming a lot of cave formations or speleothems. So, even though Mammoth Cave is a larger cave system, Carlsbad Caverns has a much denser and variety of formations, like soda straws, popcorn, draperies, columns, lily pads, flowstone, and cave pearls.

Last time we visited, we stayed for the Bat Flight Program. It is a really unique experience as the bats fly over your head by just feet or even inches. The Bat Flight Program is free and there are no reservations. Just find out what time it starts on the day you visit, it is well worth your time. However, we didn’t feel like hanging around in the heat to see it again. It was well into the 100’s (Fahrenheit) at Carlsbad Caverns that day.

Spending the day in the cool air of the cave was a nice break from the heat. Feeling refreshed, we were ready to return to the Guadalupe Mountains and prepare for a long hike the next morning.

Check out our related video: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

(Ann)