We spent the night in Roswell, which is about an hour up the road. The drive into the park looked spectacular and cactus-covered, but unfortunately we couldn’t stop at any of the views. At the park we rushed in to buy the King’s Palace tour tickets and took the elevator down into the caverns. They have a small area inside the caves with food (including great hamburgers) and gifts. The King’s Palace tour was beautiful and the hike up the hill was horribly overrated. The tour concludes before you hike up, so you can take your own pace. The Big Room tour was also fabulous and you can easily spend an hour and a half doing it. The only disappointment was the Bottomless Pit which was a different view than I thought it would be. We were going to hike out via the Natural Entrance, but apparently you have to enter before 12. Make sure you hike in in the morning if at all possible, since we missed all the bats because we couldn’t spend the night. The plaque was on the outside wall of the visitor center near the door (the last place I looked). The parking lot is also over a sudden drop and a beautiful view of the landscape.