In a midst of a landscape covered with flaming oil rigs just below the surface of the Chihuahuan Desert are more than 119 caves—formed when sulfuric acid carved the limestone underground creating caverns. This is one of the most impressive set of speleothems (cave formations) in the United States with some of the biggest and longest caves in the world. Carlsbad Caverns is one of the most recent caves to be dissolved in the Guadalupe Mountains, somewhere between four to six million years ago. When the cave collapsed a natural entrance was formed. Air flowed, and cave decorations were slowly created through one million years of dripping water and growing minerals over time.
Entering the huge entrance from the hot desert into the cool chambers and tunnels below is like entering the portal to the center of the Earth. It is also an access point for the millions of Brazilian free-tailed bats that live in the caves and the most well-known of 17 bat species in the park. Each evening from late May through October, a ranger program that educates visitors about the bats takes place in the amphitheater. As the sun sets you will possibly see the bats outfight for their nightly feeding heading towards the bugs populating the landscape. I use the term possibly because on our visit the ranger told us that on the previous four nights the bats did not emerge. We crossed our fingers and hoped that they were super hungry. They were. The flowing patterns of the bats swirling around in the sky was never ending as we sat peacefully mesmerized for about 45 minutes before it was too dark to see. However, we could still hear them swooping by our ears in the air. The National Parks Service has several measures in place at the site to protect the bats from White-nose Syndrome and electronic disruption of their echolocation. In the daytime you can see and hear swallows entering the cave through the light above.
Many of the caves below are inaccessible however there are two major trails that lead visitors through miles of stalactites and stalagmites. The walk down the 1-1/4-mile steep Natural Entrance Trail is the equivalent to about 79 stories. It is not too difficult to hike down although the climb back up is challenging even for people who are athletic. There is an elevator that travels to the bottom (where there is a gift shop and restaurant) and you can take it up again -if it is working. On our visit it was out of service for maintenance for several weeks so we experienced the full hike up and down.
Inside the caverns toward the bottom is the Big Room Trail that Is aptly named. This area has a 1-1/4 mile (one-to-two hours) walk through spacious rooms with glowing pools of water formed by the drips seeping in on the rocks and on to your head. At every turn different formations appear and although lighting is dim in the caves the lighting of the stalactites and stalagmites is dramatic. The whole walk is very impressive but if you are pressed for time a short-cut is available that reduces the walk in half. Inside the cave at points don’t be surprised by the smell of bat waste, and drops of water leaking from above.
There are ranger led tours and programs. Sign up for these needs to take place well ahead of time. We learned this too late so instead, we rented the audio lecture describing the history, geology and individual scenes. It explained the exact formations as we stood in front of them. This was well worth it since to an untrained eye the geology all looks the same and the descriptions highlighted the differences. Also, this allowed us to explore at our own pace.
If the weather allows be sure to explore the park from above. Here you will see numerous wildflowers, diverse cacti, Ponderosa Pine and Chinkapin Oak. You just might encounter animals big and small such as javelina, pronghorn elk and the Chihuahuan Desert pocket mouse.
