Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located in the southeastern corner of New Mexico in the Guadalupe Mountains. While it is definitely more off the beaten path, with the closest airports being 145 miles away, I think this National Park makes for a great weekend road trip destination. In the video below, I am going to show you some highlights of our time at Carlsbad Caverns, including some things we learned along the way. And if you are a fan of caves in general you are going to want to stick around until the end of this video because I have a little hidden gem to share with you. There is a cave system that you can explore for FREE about 20 minutes outside of the park – you can even camp there. Trust me, you aren’t going to want to miss this!
Need To Know:
Unlike many other National Parks, Carlsbad Caverns does have set opening hours and the tour into the caves starts at the visitor center. Currently, due to Covid, the park is requiring all visitors to make reservations BEFOREHAND, you cannot get in if you do not have a reservation. Also be advised that all visitors have to wear masks indoors including in the caverns regardless of vaccination status.
Once you have your tickets and you have checked out the visitor center, you can choose to either take the elevators down into the cave or walk down through the natural entrance. It’s a 1.25 mile hike into the cave and a 750 foot elevation drop – it’s steep. While it is paved they do not allow strollers or wheelchairs to go down this way, you have to take the elevator. We opted to walk down and take the elevator back up.
Once you get inside the caverns it is DARK, there are lights but to keep with the ambiance the lighting is quite dim. Its always 56 degrees down in the caves and it can be wet due to water that drips down into the cave, so dress accordingly. There is a small cafeteria inside the cave and an area where you can eat as well as restrooms. They do not allow food or drink (besides water) inside the cave.
History:
As we made our way to the opening to go down into the cave, I had to think about the CRAZY STORY of how the caves were discovered. Apparently a teenage boy named Jim White, discovered the caverns while he was riding through the Chihuahuan Desert in search of stray cattle. He saw a cloud of bats rising from the hills and went to see where they were coming from. He later described this event by saying, “I found myself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole I had ever seen, out of which the bats seemed literally to boil.” Jim White eventually returned to the area and with the help of a 15 year-old Mexican boy explored much of the cave system with homemade torches and a ball of string to find their way back. Now he later managed to turn his discovery into a profitable business by mining the guano produced by the bats and selling it as fertilizer. As well as taking tourists into the caves for a small fee but what I find so crazy about this is it is DARK in these caves and to think of a teenage boy lowering himself into this cave and exploring by torch…what an adventure that must have been!
Bonus – Guadalupe Mountains National Park:
Depending on where you are staying during your visit to Carlsbad, if you opt not to go back the next day you can easily drive 30 minutes and visit Guadalupe Mountain National Park. Now I wont spend too much time going over what to do here but there are plenty of beautiful hikes and an amazing Visitor Center to visit. If you’re traveling with kids, the Junior Ranger program here is awesome!
Parks Ranch Campground:
But if you are here for the caves, which you might be since this is a video about Carlsbad Caverns, there is a little hidden gem I am going to share with you. We opted to camp during our stay in the Carlsbad area and while doing some research I found a fantastic free camping site on BLM land that had a nice perk – A whole cave system to explore!! It’s called Parks Ranch Cave System and if you look at the map and see how close it is to the National Park, I suppose it make sense that there might be more caves in this area.
The Parks Ranch Cave System has a 4.3 mile long gypsum cave with at least 18 different entrances. I will admit that the thought of going into a cave without a guide was slightly terrifying but fascination and curiosity took over! The first thing we noticed was how warm and humid it was inside. With this cave being much smaller than the caves at the National Park, it stays much warmer inside. We went from freezing wind and 40 degree temps outside to nice warm probably 70 degree temps in the cave. There are several spots inside that are quite narrow and many areas where we had to duck.
The rest of our time was spent here, enjoying the solitude and venturing off to explore the caves some more. But overall we loved this boondocking spot for it’s proximity to both parks as well as large open area. While the spots aren’t marked per say, you will see several fire rings that you can use. We enjoyed our late night fires and fantastic night skies.
That concludes my video about Carlsbad Caverns, I hope I have inspired some of you to make the trek to New Mexico and enjoy a totally unique National Park experience. Let me know in the comments if you have been and what your favorite thing about the park was!
