Carlsbad Caverns......

We pulled into Carlsbad (New Mexico) KOA and immediately we liked the place. It was wide open with large sites, clean and well managed. The staff was so friendly and offered us great advice on things to do in the area. We wanted to extend our stay, but a check of the weather forecast changed our minds. Bonus: we could order dinner and have it delivered to our RV. Can't beat that for a treat after a long driving day!

The next day, our first stop was Carlsbad Caverns National Park, located in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico. For more information, click here. We arrived bright and early, and spent a little time exploring some of the "surface" of the park at the various "stops" along the route to the Visitor Center. We are both fascinated with the desert flora and fauna, and we really enjoyed some of the views and short paths.  

Its a few miles to the Visitor Center, but there are stops along the way to explore the "surface" of the park

love the flora and fauna of the desert environment 

Chihuahuan Desert is the wettest of the U.S. deserts

water....always a treat in the desert

outcroppings where Native American Indians lived for a while

Indian dwelling

we love exploring this stuff

We reached the Visitor Center, and spoke with the ranger about the Cave Tours. There are two self-guided tours, and we were interested in both of them. The Natural Cave Entrance Self-Guided Route is about a mile long, and takes about an hour. Its a steep descent into a canyon - 800 ft. in one mile. The Big Room Self-Guided Tour is also about a mile, and takes about 1.5 hours. This trail is paved and mostly level and is one of the most popular tours at the park. It can be accessed either from the Natural Cave Entrance (which we were planning on doing) or the elevators. HOWEVER, the elevators were out of order, and all visitors to the cave had to enter AND EXIT through the Natural Cave Entrance. This was definitely crowd control...as you can just imagine. We had a relatively semi-private tour of the caves!

at the Visitor Center-tickets were free due to the elevator issue

Bat Viewing area at the Natural Entrance (the bats have left for the winter-too bad for us)

the Natural Cave Entrance...hope I can handle the heights!

here we go

looks pretty steep

the paths were wide enough so no issue with heights (thankfully!)

we're going in

managing my fear of heights (though its not that bad here)

Once inside the cave, the route actually got a bit steeper, and slippery, but oh the sights we were seeing! Wow! If you only explore one cave in this country, I think this would be the one to put on your bucket list...in my humble opinion! I'll let the pictures tell the tale, even though the pictures are terrible!

amazing down below

too bad you can't see what's behind us!

there we go...

cave popcorn

Iceberg Rock-this piece fell from the ceiling many years ago-its huge and so is this cave

so many stalactites

very cool

the early visitors to the cave had to take stairs-this section is now blocked off

the path travels a little more than a mile through these amazing formations. The cave is enormous, and the trail is very steep going down. Its huge down here!

Before long, we entered a busy area...restrooms, food and gifts, and the elevators (that weren't operating)....and then....THE BIG ROOM! It was surreal. So huge. The trail allowed us to view extraordinary formations inside the cave. This cave is magically "decorated". Check out some of these pictures. They don't begin to do it justice, and I highly recommend (if you are interested) to check out some images on the internet. Its truly amazing what lies below in these caves. The history is very interesting as well (how the cave was found, the chemical forces that formed the cave and its speleothems, the early exploration of the cave, etc).

bad picture of Tom entering the "Big Room" 

just enormous....the pictures don't capture it

so many formations

so cool

the trail meanders through various areas of the Big Room

amazing

its surreal down here

so many different formations

the lion's tail....over Tom's head

close up of one of the "giants"

Hall of Giants

this is incredible

takes a while to take it all in - we just stop and gawk

Fairyland

soda straws (?)

amazing stuff here!

hard to capture the magnitude of this cave

cool stuff around every turn

slimy looking

close up...check out the water too

continuing through

these formations are called "draperies"

close up of draperies

its quiet down here too...no one is talking....which adds to the experience of viewing this surreal beauty

pools of water in some places

looking up

looking across

"Chinese Theater"

Energized from the fantastic cave experience we had, we headed back up the Natural Entrance trail. It was pretty steep, with parts that had a 20% grade. Some of it was slippery. We just went slow and took a lot of breaks and made it out in less than an hour! The timing isn't important....the fact that we made it out is...hahahhah! Seriously, it wasn't that bad. It was a good workout though.

too late...this is the only route out of the cave...(there were plenty of warnings previously too)

ahhhh...light at the end of the tunnel!!

actually, this was one of the easier parts, believe it or not!

We really enjoyed our time in this national park! Located not too far from here is another national park-Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I'll save that for another post.