Carls-Batcave Caverns

July 15th, 2018

Carlsbad Caverns is four hours and thirty minutes from Santa Fe and is about as exciting as you’d expect for a drive through the summer desert landscape. By the time we arrived the wind was once again making itself known, and the sky had darkened ominously over the park. The park, as many National Parks are, was a ways out from civilization. We were undeterred by the weather as we knew we’d be inside and hoped it would pass while we toured the cave. The only downside to the wind coming back was that our pictures didn’t turn out so flattering; I suppose there’s a reason that Marilyn Monroe stood over a manhole and not just in an approaching monsoon.

Blown around by the wind in front of the Carlsbad Caverns sign.

   Anyhow, we went into the lobby where they offer several kinds of tours including ranger led and self-guided- you can see your options on the park’s official website. We chose the Big Room Trail because we arrived too late to do the Natural Entrance Trail (available until 2:30), which involved hiking down into the cavern down a steep trail a little over a mile long. The Big Room trail makes use of the elevator instead, and is the quicker option of the two for getting into the cavern, though both are self-guided and therefore at your own pace. We didn’t have to pay the entrance fee because our park pass got us in, but normally it is $15. That park pass continued to be our best trip purchase.

Once we had our tickets, we were shown to the elevator. If it’s busy, you are shown to the line to the elevator, as evidenced by the movie theater ropes pushed back to the wall. Because we were there so late in the day, we ended up boarding the elevator within 5 minutes and we were descending the 754 feet down into the Big Room. Keep in mind that while the caves are extremely humid, they are also much colder than the surface temperature, about 56℉ year-round. The rangers recommend closed-toed walking shoes, sweatshirts, and water and ask that everyone speak in whispers because sound carries so dramatically in the cave. Talking in a regular tone, as we would soon see from the many individuals who ignored this request, reverberates across the caverns and echoes distractingly off the walls. Not cool. Our elevator is also full of kiddos in flip flops, so I guess these are wistful suggestions moreso than enforced rules. However, sticking to them really does make the cave a more enjoyable experience for everybody.

The elevator opens to a sprawling cavern that functions as their “downstairs” lobby. It is complete with a gift shop stand in case you forgot your water or your novelty bat sticker (we would never forget either of these things, of course). When you’re ready you can proceed to the trail entrance and get started on your cave adventure, and we wasted no time in doing so as we were trying to get out ahead of the crowd before they could close in. We were so ready to see this, especially Brian, who was already getting warmed up with Batcave comparisons. This cavern is truly incredible, and it’s hard to describe it since there’s not a lot that compares to it outside. I’d never really seen the inside of a cave other than a short jaunt through one at Pinnacles National Park so I was a blank slate ready to be wowed by the wonders of stalagmites and stalactites. As it turns out, there is so much to see in a cave; we were awed by the blooms of dagger-like rock shards that sprouted off walls like giant pointy stone anemones, pillars of twisted, shiny rock stretching from floor to ceiling, and spooky archways leading to darkness.

We peered over the edge at glowing pools of water ranging in size from puddle to pond, and even got to watch a ranger crouched over one with a long tool to pull in a stray penny. Pennies and other coins discolor the water and rocks and overall can tamper with the ecosystem in the caves. The cave is lit by LED lights, so there is a spectrum of shadows and highlight that makes it difficult to capture on camera, but interesting and dynamic in person. It also really does look like the Batcave might have before it received a billionaire’s facelift. Since the trail loops around, it gave us the chance to see the same features from different angles and get closer to things that we’d previously seen from across the room, which was also cool. Towards the end of the trail they have the “bottomless pit”, a deep, black crevasse that looks like a portal into the underworld. I had some flashbacks to The Descent while looking in there and it’s definitely eerie, although further research (or a nearby ranger) will tell you that it is only 140 feet deep. It was all over too quickly, though the trail is 1.25 miles long and it took us about an hour to walk.

We were able to look much more photogenic once we were in the caves and out of the wind.

Had we planned further ahead we would probably have taken the Natural Caves entrance in instead, or even one of the ranger-guided tours to less-traveled areas of the cavern. These areas all have creepy names like “Hall of the White Giant”, “Slaughter Canyon Cave” and “Spider Cave”. That last one might’ve been a hard pass, but I would’ve loved to have seen a different part of the cave. The Big Room, however, is advertised as the best place to start for first-time visitors, and we still thought it was amazing. We passed through the gift shop on our way out so Brian could get his patch and I could get postcards, and through the glass front doors could see the rain pouring down outside in what looked like an epic storm. I asked a ranger at the information desk if it was safe to drive in, and she gave me a quizzical look, to which I responded that we were from California and uninformed about monsoons. She laughed and asked “don’t you get rain in California?” and I agreed we did, but that this was a different beast from even the meanest California rainstorm. In the end, she reassured us it would be alright, so, feeling a little silly and clutching our new souvenirs, we booked it out through the onslaught and set off for Dallas, Texas.