Wednesday, October 18, 2023: On Wednesday evening, after driving over 350 miles from Big Bend, we crossed over into New Mexico: “Land of Enchantment.” We reached our Airbnb in Carlsbad at around 4:30 pm.
We settled in then went out for Mexican food to Carniciera San Juan de Los Lagos, a combined restaurant and butcher. I ate shrimp tacos and we each got huge lemonades.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Thursday, October 19: We went to Carlsbad Caverns National Park on Thursday morning. You had to reserve an entry time, which we had done, and we went around 9:30 a.m., walking over one mile of switchbacks down deep into the cave. It reminded me of the steep switchbacks at Bryce Canyon in Utah, except much longer and darker. You can opt to take an elevator down, but we chose to walk the steep descent so we could see the formations on the way down.
Aboveground, the Chihuahuan Desert is especially scenic here.
The 1.25 mile Natural Entrance Route to the caverns descends over 750 feet into the earth. Highlights along this route include Bat Cave, Devil’s Spring, Green Lake Overlook, and the Boneyard, a complex maze of dissolved, Swiss cheese-like limestone rock. Iceberg Rock is a single 200,000-ton boulder that fell from the cave ceiling thousands of years ago.
When we reached the bottom, we did the self-guided tour of the large limestone chamber named simply the Big Room, which is almost 4,000 ft (1,220 m) long, 625 ft (191 m) wide, and 255 ft (78 m) high at its highest point. The Big Room is the largest chamber in North America and the 32nd largest in the world.
Scientists theorize that the Big Room, as well as many other caverns in this network, began to form more than 20 million years ago, as the petroleum deposits under the Guadalupe Mountains reacted with groundwater to create sulfuric acid, which ate through the stone to form vast hollow spots under the ground. These spaces started to fill with stalagmites and stalactites about 500,000 years ago. Formations range from hulking towers to ripple-like lava to delicate needles that look more like icicles than stone.
The Big Room self-guided tour took us around the perimeter of the room. It passes many large and famous features like Bottomless Pit, Giant Dome, Rock of Ages and Painted Grotto. Lit in tasteful white lights, the Big Room glows like a natural cathedral.
We were down in the underworld for several hours and though it’s around 56°F all year round, we were warm because of walking through the damp air.
There are amazing rock formations throughout the caves.
White’s City
The city of Carlsbad is a good 35 minute drive from the National Park, so we had to drive back and forth twice today to the caverns. White’s City is the actual gateway town to Carlsbad Caverns National Park but there wasn’t much here except some old broken-down wooden wagons, some tourist shops with western-themed facades, and statues of a buffalo, a bull and a wild horse in front of the Cactus Cafe.
Carlsbad & Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park
We had lunch in our Airbnb after returning to Carlsbad. Then, since I don’t have a maurices near me, when I found one in Carlsbad, I had to stop to make a few purchases!
After my brief shopping stop, we visited the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park in Carlsbad, which displays plants and animals of the Chihuahuan Desert in their native habitats. It sits at an elevation of 3,200 feet (980 m) atop the Ocotillo Hills overlooking the city and the Pecos River.
It was quite hot and compared to the desert botanical gardens I saw around Phoenix, AZ in 2020, these were rather unkempt. Besides, I don’t really enjoy zoos or seeing animals in captivity, so this wasn’t one of my favorite activities.
Back to Carlsbad Caverns to see the bat exodus
At dusk, we returned to Carlsbad Caverns to watch several hundred thousand Brazilian free-tailed bats 🦇 swirl out of the cave entrance and launch themselves over the landscape to hunt for food, mostly insects: typically moths and beetles. They feast mainly in the Pecos and Black River valleys. We watched the spectacle at the outdoor amphitheater at the cave’s natural entrance. A ranger did a talk and Q&A before the bats emerged.
There was no way to know exactly what time the bats would emerge. The spectacular flight began with a few bats fluttering out of the natural entrance to the Cavern. In a matter of minutes, a thick bat whirlwind spiraled out of the cave up into the darkening night sky.
These dark brown to gray bats are distinguished by their long narrow wings and free-dangling, skinny tails. Because the bats winter in Mexico, the flights occur only from early spring through October, so we were lucky to be there to witness this spectacle.
Using echolocation, each bat may catch and eat more than half its body weight in insects in a single night. The exodus can last from 20 minutes to 2 1/2 hours. At dawn, the bats begin flying back to the cave individually or in small groups.
During the day, the bats crowd together on the ceiling of Bat Cave, a passageway near the natural entrance of Carlsbad Caverns.
Sadly we were not allowed to take any pictures and had to keep our phones turned off because the signals are confusing to the bats 🦇.
Back to Carlsbad
For dinner our second night in Carlsbad, after watching the bat flight at dusk at Carlsbad, we enjoyed beers, calamari, green chili stew and tortilla soup at Yellow Brix. We really enjoyed the atmosphere at this place.
Steps: 14,569; Miles 6.18. Drove 123.6 miles. Weather Hi 82°, Lo 51°.
Jo’s Monday Walk: Los Molinos del Tajo
~ wander.essence ~ 
The caves are amazing! I would love to visit those. John used to be a caver and I went a couple of times – horrible! Show caves are fine but crawling through muddy holes is not.
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I’m not a big fan of caves in general, Anabel. I always feel a bit claustrophobic and fear the whole thing collapsing! I would really hate clambering through small muddy chambers as you did with John. Ugh. I told Mike I’ve now been to enough caves in my life that I don’t feel the need to visit any more. This one was spectacular and was a good way to end my cave-visiting days! Just like when I did ziplining in Costa Rica – there’s no need for me to ever do it again. 🙂
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I love seeing caves and these look amazing.
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This cave was amazing for sure. But see my comment to Anabel below. I think my cave-visiting days are over. I’ve been to a lot of them (we have quite a few in Virginia and West Virginia) and they all begin to look alike after a while. Plus, they make me a bit claustrophobic.
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Fabulous photos, Cathy, though I’m really not good with caves. So sorry I didn’t pick this up sooner.
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Thanks, Jo. I know, I’m not a big fan of caves myself. I’ve been to so many throughout the country, especially here in Virginia and West Virginia, that I told Mike I felt no need to ever go in a cave again after this one. But it was beautiful, in its way.
No problem about missing this. I know you’re busy, especially as you’ve been traveling and apparently are planning to go away again soon. I certainly never spend any time blogging while traveling, or looking at blogs! Not enough hours in the day! I don’t know how you keep up with all the stuff you keep up with.
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🤗🩵
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