Great Western Road Trip: Summer Travel to Carlsbad Caverns

I've always enjoyed spelunking as a kid. I love being able to explore an underground world that's not visible at first glance. A place where you have to purposefully shine your light, search out nooks and crannies and crawl through tight holes just to make sure you've seen most of it.

So, when my wife and I first decided to take our road trip, I knew that we had to visit Carlsbad Caverns. I'd heard of it since I was a kid. Though I never knew too much about it, I knew it was supposed to be one of the best caving experiences there are to be had.

But Carlsbad Caverns is not just spelunking, it's something different. It's like exploring a vast, underground palace. And it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Actually, that's probably an under-statement. Carlsbad Caverns is the stuff dreams are made of. Literally. I'm not sure if this kind of view can be seen anywhere else on earth (or under it for that matter). I also can't really explain it to make you understand. But I'll do my best and I'll even throw in a few pictures I took.

As you come through the entrance of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, you drive up a short stretch of winding roads through flowering cacti-covered mountains. But these aren't gigantic mountains and the trip to the visitor center doesn't take long.

When you get there, you have to pay a park entrance fee, per person. You can enter the caves either through an elevator that takes you right down to the main level (some of the best sights in the park are completely wheelchair-accessible) or through the "natural" entrance. Neither of these cost a special fee as they're both included in general entrance.

Wanting to see as much cave as possible, my wife and I opted for the natural entrance. It's just over 1 mile of paved path that zig-zags and loops down into the heart of the earth. As you approach the entrance, you see abundantly flowering cacti crowding each other for the meager root space they find in every nook and cranny of even slightly horizontal rock surface. You also see swarms of small birds that apparently live in crevices and holes in the cave's entrance and love to poop on park visitors. Watch out below.

The beginning descent is quick but there is plenty of railing and you could always stop to catch your breath if you need to. What's really breath-taking though are the first views once you're all the way into the entrance. Even in this early part of the cave, magnificent stalactite and stalagmite formations can be found along the edge of the path.

A few flashes of a camera might even scare out a few bats, but I'm told most of them don't appear until about dusk. At that point, there are so many that make their evening exodus from the cave that from a distance they appear as a large thick cloud of smoke.

As the majority of the zig-zagging ends and you make a few loops and duck through a few tunnels, the cave opens up into even more spectacular rooms and formations. All of the major cave paths (which include the Natural Entrance, the Big Room, and the King's Room tour) are artificially lighted. But only a few parts of the Big Room (which I'll get to later) have enough light that you might forget you're hundreds of feet underground. For the most part, the general consensus seems to be that low and colored lighting with spotlights on the most extravagant formations sets the best overall mood. I don't think I could disagree.

As you continue to descend through the natural entrance, past ever more fascinating formations, there is one that really sticks out, especially if you read the informative panel near the top of it. It's called the "Iceberg". That's because you first see just the tip of it and you know it's huge. The information panel describes how fairly recently (though thousands of years ago) it fell from a spot of the ceiling a little ways above it. This leaves your mind wandering through hypothetical situations in which you might've been around when it fell, what it would sound like, and if you could possibly survive. What's really insane is that when you've wound around and under this thing once or twice, you're sure you've seen the bottom of it, only to find that you go another level deeper around it. The tip of this "Iceberg" gave only a little hint to its true size.

Eventually, about an hour later if you take a long time and a lot of pictures like I did, you arrive at the bottom of the Natural Entrance right out by the Big Room. Here, you can either take a break in the underground Picnic Area, Restaurant and Gift Shop (that's right) or continue on.

The Picnic area is big in its own right, but what makes it special is that it's 750 feet underground. This is where the elevator drops some people off and where it takes everyone back to the surface. The ceiling's not too high like other parts of the cave, but it is wide and it goes back a long ways, housing plenty of picnic tables and other places to sit, stand, and talk.

The Restaurant is not exactly like it sounds as it mainly serves pre-packaged sandwiches and chips, but it does have warm cookies and drinks. The Gift Shop (underground) sells nothing particularly special, but it's not bad. There are even restrooms down here, with sloping ceilings that reveal the rocky surface of the cave above them. Don't ask me how they manage the plumbing.

Now, as I made it down the Natural Entrance and saw the first part of the Big Room, I really thought I'd seen it all. But I hadn't. Not even close. Nowhere near close. The Big room is another 1.5 mile stretch of mainly even path surface that takes you around a twisting tour of massive corridors, vaulted ceilings and unbelievable formations. It's all well-lit in all the right places.

I can't really describe this and I know you can't really imagine it until you see it, but I'll try anyway. There are places where rows of spikes seem to shoot from the ceiling, waiting to fall on their prey underneath. There are grand columns around amphitheaters that would house a performance fit for kings. There are stalagmites that reach up from the ground over six stories high. There are natural totem poles, skinny but straight and firm.

There are curtains of stone draperies hanging down that are so massive they can be seen from more than 100 feet off, but so thin that light from one side can be seen through the other. There's popcorn (that's actually the scientific name) busting out over half the formations you see. There are rocks riddled with holes like swiss cheese. There are bottomless pits (well, not quite, but they fooled everyone for a long time) and pools that reflect their beautiful surroundings like mirrors.

These caves stretch so far that no matter how well lit, there are places where you can't see from one end to the other (and not because it's blocked from view by a rock). Imagine entering a place like this with nothing but a flame for light and all these strange and often creepy formations are flickering in contrast with their shadows with every move that you make. Would you not dream of dwarves, dragons, even hell? I have the benefit of modern knowledge, but my sense of imagination and wonder could by no means be stifled while I saw all this.

I could write forever and you'd still not know exactly what I saw. You really have to see it for yourself. Other than these two free (after entrance fees), self-guided tours I described, there are about 4 or 5 others which require a paid guided tour to participate in. We did one (the King's Room) which is the most highly and densely-decorated area of all the caves.

During the other tours (like Lower Cave, Slaughter Canyon Cave, Spider Cave, etc.) all participants use flashlights and have to do some climbing and crawling. The last two I mentioned are only available on weekend and I would've loved the chance to go, but we were there on a Tuesday. So remember, if you want a bit more strenuous and less-traveled experience, show up on the weekend.

But whatever you want and whatever your activity level, you can see one of the few sights that is designated as a World Heritage. I saw 4-year old kids in the cave and I saw 80-year old seniors and everyone was marveling at what they saw. I highly doubt I'll ever see anything like this anywhere else again, and I think everyone who can should make a point of seeing it at least once. Carlsbad Caverns is more than a National Park, it's a national treasure.