Linda Harvey
Carlsbad Caverns National Park (NP) is located in the Chihuahuan Desert of southeastern New Mexico. Besides the beautiful rocky canyons above ground with flowering cactus and wildlife, this amazing park consists of over 119 caves with fascinating and unusual formations formed over hundreds of thousand years with the help of sulfuric acid dissolving limestone and leaving behind caverns of all sizes.
The park’s essential experience is a self-guided walk among the impressive geological stalagmite and stalactite formations in the Big Room, which is the largest single cave chamber in volume in North America. The Big Room measures almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 255 feet at the highest point.
To get to the Big Room, ride the elevator 79 stories down from the visitor center. Or be adventurous and hike the steep 1.25–mile trail. Either way, once you arrive, you will be treated to ceiling-hung forests of delicate, icicle-like formations resembling frozen waterfalls, and a surreal world of folded, rippled stone. The mostly level 1–mile trail through the Big Room can be covered in 90 minutes, but many people take 2.5 hours. If you get hungry, you can stop at the Underground Lunchroom, which has a 1950s retro-futuristic look.
The park’s other must see spectacle involves Brazilian free-tailed bats, which live by the hundreds of thousands in deep, dark reaches of the caverns roughly from April to the end of October. At sunset they fly en masse from the cave’s mouth, swarming and blackening the sky on their way to feast on insects.
The park runs a free Bat Flight Program with an evening ranger talk from Memorial Day weekend through October, which takes place at the Bat Flight Amphitheater, located at the Natural Entrance to Carlsbad Cavern. The start time for the program changes as the summer progresses and sunset times change. So, check at the Visitors Center for times. Programs may be canceled in the event of lightning. And most important—electronic devices, including cell phones, are not allowed at the Bat Flight Program and surrounding area. Research has shown that bats who are used to total darkness and silence are disturbed by sounds and light, which can cause changes in their behavior.
It’s known that the best bat flights occur in August through September when baby bats, born in early summer, join the flight along with migrating bats from colonies further north.
In addition, Carlsbad Canyon NP has Star Parties from May to October and Night Hikes from March to October. Check the nps.gov website for details of these Night Programs and current alerts occurring in the park.
Special notes:
* Timed Entry Tickets are required to enter Carlsbad Cavern. Reservations are strongly recommended and can be purchased online ahead of time at recreation.gov.
* Reservations are only for selecting the entry time to the cavern.
* A Park Pass or the purchase of a ticket is required to the park.
For information about or a membership request, send an email to [email protected] or to [email protected].