  Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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 108 Carlsbad Caverns National Park Tips.285 Carlsbad Caverns National Park Photos.0 Carlsbad Caverns National Park Videos. Carlsbad Caverns National Park Pages by KimberlyAnn Sponsored Links for Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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Tips 1 - 6 of 6 Carlsbad Caverns National Park Things to Do
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Things To Do: Big Room Self-Guided Route
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If you only do one thing at Carlsbad, the Big room is the must see tour. This one-mile walk will take you at least one hour. One reason this is wonderful is that it is a self-guided walk, so you are able to wander along the perimeter of the largest room in the cave at your own pace. This is a circle route that passes many of the most famous features in the cave. We moved slowly so that we could take it all in. This cave is truly awesome with its big rooms, and intact formations such as the enormous stalagmites, stalactites, columns, soda straws, curtains, heliclites, popcorn, flowstone, and others formations. To reach this walk you will decent about 755 feet by elevators, which are located in the visitor center. The trail is relatively level and well lit. This room is also accessible to wheelchairs, using a special map that you may get at the visitor center information desk.
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Things To Do: Natural Entrance Self-Guided Route
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If you have more time and are able to walk a more strenuous tour than the Big Room, combine the Self-Guided Natural Entrance Tour with the Big Room Self-Guided Route. With this tour you will not use the elevators to reach the Big Room, rather you will descend over 750 feet down the Main Corridor on a steep and somewhat narrow switchback trail. The ceiling at times will rise more that 200 feet above your head. The trail will then take you past a decorated part of the cave. You can then return to the surface by elevator, or continue to the Big Room.
If you would like to do more than just look at the formations I would highly recommend that you rent the Audio Guide. These are radios and earphones that are programmed with narrative information about the history of the cave and the formations you will be viewing. The radio is programmed to automatically begin play each time that you come upon one of the individual areas that the narrative covers. We found the information was interesting and informative, and really helped to enhance our self-guided tour.
We did this combined Big Room and Natural Entrance Self-Guided Tour, which is about two and a half miles. We walked slowly trying to take it all in, and stopping to listen to our Audio Guide where ever it was triggered. It took us about four and a half hours. It was so nice to be able to wander along unguided. This cave is truly a wonder. The photo was taken by my husband as we began our descent into the Natural Entrance.
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Things To Do: King's Palace Tour
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This is a ranger led tour that is advertised to be a one and a half our tour. Ours, however, took 2 hours and included four beautiful, highly decorated rooms, as well as informative information about the cave. At 830 feet below the surface of the desert, this tour will take you into the deepest part of the cave open to the public. The Kings Palace may be one of the most ornate cave rooms in the world. As you take this tour you will see giant draperies, soda-straw stalactites, columns, and other interesting formations I especially found the helicities interesting. These looked like a clump of twisted roots, as they twisted in all directions. Although not as strenuous as the Natural Entrance route, this 2 mile tour does require you to descend, then later climb what would be equal to an 8-story hill. Reservations are required for this tour and it is recommended that you make these in advance. Children under the age of 4 are not permitted on the King’s Palace tour.
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Things To Do: Lower Cavern Tour
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Wow! What a fun tour this was! Definitely one of my favorites. This is a moderately strenuous tour with a maximum of 12 people allowed, ages 12 and older. We wore hard hats with lanterns on them and were led into an undeveloped section of the cave below the “Big Room.” This tour is by reservation only and is ranger led. We began the tour by descending down a somewhat steep slope using a rope. You would yell out “on rope”, then grasp the rope and walk down backwards in a leaning back position. At the bottom you said “off rope,” as only one person at a time was allowed to descend. After this we climbed over some rocks and descended further on 50 foot of stainless steel ladders, most of which descended vertically. Again you used the “on ladder” and “off ladder” call. This lower part is undeveloped with plastic red ribbons laid out marking the path. It was in darkness except for one area where lights had been placed to reflect up through ceiling holes into the developed general tour area above. We had to use a few stepping stones to cross a shallow stream, hanging onto the cave walls at the end to step across to the solid surface. In another area you crawled through a 30 foot tunnel to the other side. Note that if you do not wish to crawl through this tunnel you can take a small detour to walk around this area. I have to say I was glad that I am a small person. One spot in the tunnel was really narrow. This tour was a circle tour so that you ended up back at the rope, where you ascended the same way that you had come down, grasping the rope, leaning back, feet shoulder width apart, and walking up with small steps. I LOVED it! It was so much fun!!!! Oh yes, and it was beautiful also. On this tour we saw some lovely cave crystals and cave pearls along with lots of other wonderful cave formations. Reserve ahead for this one!
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Things To Do: Left Hand Tunnel
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Left Hand Tunnel is the least expensive of the guided tours. In 2004 tickets for this tour were $3.50 for children and $7 for adults. Please be aware, however, that no child under the age of 6 is allowed on this tour. Left Hand Tunnel is scheduled once daily at 9:00A.M., and reservations are required for this tour. The tour meets in the visitor center, and times and fees are subject to change at any time. This is a one half mile lantern tour which highlights the cave history and takes about two hours. We saw some nice cave pools on this trip as we learned about the interesting history and geology of the cave. Lanterns are provided for this trip.
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Things To Do: The Bat Flight
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I would love to see this, but we were in Carlsbad too early in April. Bat Cave is an area in Carlsbad Cavern that offers the Mexican Freetail bats a warm weather home and a maternity roost. The Freetail bats migrate from Mexico to Carlsbad each year where they give birth and raise their young. Arriving in early spring, they will remain in Bat Cave until late October or early November. Before we went to Carlsbad I had read about the spectacular night flight of about 300,000 of these bats. It begins with a few bats fluttering out of the natural entrance of Carlsbad Cavern, then within a few minutes, a thick mass of thousands of bats spiral out of the cave and up into the night sky for their nightly feeding. This exodus can take from 20 minutes to 2 and a half hours. If you are there during the time the bats are flying, don’t miss this.
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More Carlsbad Caverns National Park Tips
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 Comments for KimberlyAnn about Carlsbad Caverns National Park | | | | |
SLLiew Wed Apr 23, 2008 15:08 UTC
Amazing page of Carlsbad Caverns NP. I saw that bat flights at the Mulu National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia. The bats are incredible mammals adapted to living in the caves and hunting at night. | corcatk Wed Jul 11, 2007 22:49 UTC
Thanks for all the great information & pics. We are thinking of taking a trip there next year, we're hoping to see the bat flight. | atufft Sun Apr 22, 2007 07:17 UTC
Nice work again Anne. I need to take my significant other on these tours. The last time I did this, I barely passed the minimum age requirement. | nickandchris Sun Feb 5, 2006 22:53 UTC
Absolutely stupendous.!!! What fantastic photos and tremendous information here. I'd love to see this one day, perhaps without the tourists...... |
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