After Amarillo, we headed to southern New Mexico to the Carlsbad area. Here I was able to check out the Carlsbad Cavern National Park.
When you go to this park, you have two choices to get to the ‘Big Room’ which is the main area of the cavern. You can take an elevator, or you can walk down a switchback path the equivalent of 75 floors (750 feet). I, of course, chose the latter.
This is the view as you walk into the cavern.
There was something flying around as we descended into the cavern.
I’m not sure if they were birds or bats, but the National Parks website describes a nightly ‘Bat Flight’ program each evening in the summer. You can read more about that here https://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/bat_flight_program.htm
The trek down was steep at times, but in general, not that difficult. The path was wide and had sturdy handrails.
The was a lot of beautiful things to see as you walked down into the cavern. Obviously the lighting was very dim, so the pictures just don’t do it justice.
At the bottom of the cavern is the area called the Big Room, and is it ever! This was my first glimpse.
It probably doesn’t look like much, but it is really expansive.
Here are a few more pictures from the Big Room.
This is the concession area at the elevator Exit of the cavern.
This formation is called the Lion’s Tail
If you look very closely in the middle of this picture, you will see a rope suspended from the top of the cavern. Believe it or not, there was a park ranger that was climbing that rope just before I arrived at the spot.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a great experience. If you are in the area, it is definitely worth the trip.
Time for us to head back north and see what other exciting things we can find along Route 66!
Beautiful! I would not be on that rope. I also would have been afraid of the bats and birds.
I have been in caverns before. I am amazed of the beauty and formation of the stone.
That looks amazing!
Absolutely stunning! Nature’s masterpiece. Thank you for the awesome photos and taking us along!
Thanks so much for sharing! Hopefully, I can make it to see this beauty some day.
WOW‼️‼️‼️. Not sure why you didn’t climb up the rope‼️‼️🤣🤣 Ha! Ha!
Fabulous!! What another great adventure.
Amazing! I am putting it on my bucket list
Looks amazing!
If my memory serves me correctly, when I was very young, my mom and dad took me to Carlsbad caverns. In the great room there were lots of tables (maybe picnic tables and benches) where one could dine on boxed lunches. I’ll have to look that up, but it remains a very vivid memory because of the immensity of the big room and the switchback path down to the cavern. I don’t remember an elevator, but I was very young.