Carlsbad Caverns

After my summit of Texas’s High Point, I headed over to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico (the high point of Texas is right on the Texas/New Mexico border). The park entrance use located on US Highway 62/180, about 18 miles from the town of Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico in the Chihuahuan Desert. There are a few choices in things to do, including the Bat Flight program and night sky events, but the largest attraction is a tour of the cave itself.

You can do a self-guided tour as well as a ranger-guided tour. You can do self-guided tours of two main areas: the Big Room or the Natural Entrance. Both self-guided tours are a 1 and a quarter mile hike. Check out more details on self-guided tours here. It is highly recommended to purchase an audio guide if you choose to do a self guided tour; they can be purchased at the Carlsbad Caverns Bookstore.

There are numerous different ranger-guided tours through the caves; they require different agility abilities and are of varying lengths. The times in which you can see the different parts of the cave vary depending upon the season, as well. Here’s the current schedule.

There are six different tours available: King’s Palace, Left Hand Tunnel, Slaughter Canyon Cave, Lower Cave, Hall of the White Giant, and the Spider Cave.

King’s Palace: A one and a half hour tour that leads you through four chambers of the caves and takes you into the deepest portion of the cave, roughly 830 feet beneath the desert surface. Tour requires being able to walk up and down steep hills. Check it out here.

Left Hand Tunnel: A history, candle-lit tour through an undeveloped section of the cave. Lasts two hours. There is no paved walkway and the trail is very windy with uneven and steep slopes. Check it out here.

Slaughter Canyon Cave: One of the longer and more adventurous tours. Lasts 5 and a half hours and takes you through the underground wilderness of the cave; there are no paved walkways or electricity. You are provided helmets with headlamps to see. Like with the Left Hand Tunnel, the trails are not paved and can be uneven and slippery. Check it out here.

Lower Cave: A popular tour due to the many different cave formations you get to see including “the rookery,” “colonel boles formation,” and the “Texas toothpick.” Tour lasts about 3 hours. Check it out here.

Hall of the White Giant: Takes about 4 hours, and requires ladder climbing, crawling through tight passageways, and climbing slippery flowstone. Not recommended for those afraid of tight spaces or heights. Check it out here.

Spider Cave: A three-dimensional maze cave with a half mile hike down Garden Grove Canyon. Contains a lot of climbing and crawling; tour patrons get to see a variety of cave formations and different cave “rooms.” Takes about 4 hours and like the Hall of the White Giant, is not recommended for those who are afraid of heights or tight/enclosed spaces. Check it out here.

I chose to do the Lower Cave tour; we were supplied helmets with lamps and gloves, but strangely, I had to bring my own batteries. Not sure what that was about. If you do any of the tours, make sure to bring three AA batteries (for the caves without electricity provided, of course).

The Lower Cave boasts the “rookery,” know for the high number of cave pearl nests. A cave pearl is formed when there is a high concentration of calcium salts that form in a cluster.