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Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Big Room cave formations, Carlsbad Caverns National Park / Rebecca Latson

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Contributing photographer and writer for the National Parks Traveler since 2012, Rebecca Latson has ventured out to units of the U.S. National Park System, as well as national parks within Canada, on behalf of the Traveler. With her writing and photography, Rebecca authors the Traveler's monthly Photography In The National Parks column as well as various other national park-related articles (hiking, itineraries, photography guides, quizzes) for the Traveler.

There are several cave-centric park units within the National Park System. Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico could be considered the “Grande Dame” of these cave parks, even though it was not the first park established to protect a cave, nor is it the largest or longest cave. Carlsbad Cavern is, however, one of the most accessible and best-preserved cave complexes in the United States, and possibly in the world. Here is a cave where you can embark upon a self-guided tour at your own speed, following the paved trail some 750 feet (228.6 meters) down to the cavernous and heavily-decorated Big Room, one of the largest single cave chambers by volume in North America. You can marvel at the wide variety of speleothems (cave formations) festooning the floors, walls, and ceiling, including stalagmites, stalactites, columns, and flowstone drapery with descriptive names such as Rock of Ages, Temple of the Sun, and Whale’s Mouth.

When approaching the main cave, visitors are met by a steep and winding trail that descends into the main cavern. As you walk down the trail, the cavern seems to swallow the daylight, hence the nickname “road to hell.” For those who prefer to walk the “righteous path,” the park’s surface landscape is also home to flowering cactus and desert wildlife within the beautiful, canyon-cut desert of Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Carlsbad Caverns is more than just one cave. Unlike most other well-known limestone caves, the 119 known caves within this national park were formed not by carbonic acid (dissolved carbon dioxide in water), but rather by sulfuric acid from hydrogen sulfide-rich waters migrating through the fractures and faults within the Capitan limestone, dissolving away the rock.

Travel to the park between late May and October and you can witness the outflight of hundreds of thousands of Brazilian (Mexican) free-tail bats exiting Carlsbad Cavern’s natural entrance around thirty minutes past sunset to begin their hunt for food in the Chihuahuan Desert.

The pages below, including how to get there, where to stay, cave tours, and side trips, will help you plan your trip to this national park.

Traveler's Choice For: Being amazed at all the "space" underground, bats, geology.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park History

Carlsbad Caverns holds a history that dates back to the prehistoric era, and is one of 300 limestone caves in the southeastern corner of New Mexico, not far from the Texas border. Now, while this doesn’t necessarily mean dinosaurs walked the caverns, the permian reef certainly was home to interesting creatures. These caves were created within a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea that existed about 250 to 280 million years ago.
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