Carlsbad Caverns

Welcome to Carlsbad Caverns!

One of the best things we did when we started this journey was to purchase an annual National Park pass.  We've used it 3 times in the last two days. It will pay for itself in no time!

Today we drove from Las Cruces to Carlsbad, NM.  We knew we wanted to walk down into the cavern. To take the elevator seemed like we'd miss too many sights. So off we go into the mouth of the cave.  It seems like a pretty easy walk even though the nice gentleman at the entrance looked at me and encouraged me to take the elevator.  No dice! I'm walking it!

The entrance to the cave seems huge!  It is just a tiny hole compared to the cave itself.  We headed down the path. It is a 20 degree slope and didn't feel steep. What an

incredible feeling to walk into the cave. It just keeps going down and down. Then it goes down some more! I wish I could share more photos                       
with you but it is so dark and the pictures I took just didn't turn out well.   The one above is the view as we descend into the cavern and look back up at the opening.  We take the path until we finally reach the resting area at the bottom where the elevator drops those that don't want to make the hike down.  It took us about an hour and a half to go down a switchback path that goes 750 feet below ground.  By now that 20 degree slope feels like a lot.  Our toes are tired of pushing into our shoes.  This is where we reach the Big Room.  That is the official name! Well, by now my legs are like jello and I can't walk any more. We find that the Big Room is the size of 14 football fields!!! Now that's big!  Needless to say we decided that we'd seen enough and we couldn't possibly walk for another hour.


We had planned to tour the cavern and start our drive to San Antonio. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see the Big Room. We have wanted to see this for 40 years. So we found a hotel in Carlsbad, took a little nap and went to a great dinner at a local BBQ restaurant.  (Great pulled pork!)  We're spending the night and will go back to see the Big Room tomorrow. It's such a treat to be without a schedule. The freedom to be able to stay an extra day is wonderful.

Now, back to that little old man that didn't think I should make that 1.4 mile walk down that 20 degree grade.  He may have been right but I made it and saw things that we would have surely missed by taking the elevator.  Thank goodness we can stay another day and see the rest!

We'll break out that National Park pass again tomorrow. Sounds great to me!