Deep in southern New Mexico, not far from the Texan border, a subterranean paradise extends for miles under the desert landscape. The United States established a park to protect the spectacular Carlsbad Caverns, as well as other nearby caves, including the famed Lechuguilla Cave, in 1930. Sixty-five years later these fantastic caverns were insribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for their natural beauty and the abundant and accessible mineral deposits known as speleothems which have given researchers insights into long-standing geologic processes.

I love caves, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park has long been on my United States bucket list. Unfortunately, it is not the easiest park to get to, so on a trip to the southwest in 2019, I made a five-hour side trip from the Albuquerque Airport down to Carlsbad for a weekend visit. I'd read that it can get crowded in the summer, so to ensure that I could see the parts of the caves that I wanted to see on my day at Carlsbad, I made reservations in advance on the park website for two tours: a morning tour of the Lower Cave, and an afternoon tour of King's Palace.

The Lower Cave tour takes a small group of visitors to a section of the cave below the main famous section of Carlsbad Caverns. Here the formations are as beautiful as those in the main chamber, but the setting feels more intimate, more of an adventure (though still somewhat confining for a caver, since there is no opportunity to go off and explore). The King's Palace tour takes visitors to the lowest section of the cave open to the public; although it was not as long as the Lower Cave tour, it was a lot of fun. I found the discussions about the formation of the caves via a process involving sulfuric acid to be fascinating.

Between the tours I made a circuit of the main galleries in Carlsbad Caverns, admiring the spectacular formations in the aptly named Big Room. I also caught lunch at the underground cafe, which at this point only sells ready-made sandwiches. After the tours, I came back to the surface and walked around the visitor center to the trail leading to the natural entrance to the cave, arriving just in time to hike down into the cave before they closed the entrance for the afternoon. Just inside the entrance were some bats on the ceiling, hinting at the nightly spectacle that occurs at Carlsbad Caverns.

To me, this spectacle was the most amazing part of the visit -- the swarms of bats swirling in spirals up and out of the cave at dusk. An amphitheater outside the natural entrance allows visitors an up-close view of the bats as they start their nightly journey, and it is awesome to hear the flapping of their wings as they soar away. I would have loved a picture of the bat flight, but it is restricted so as to not provoke the bats and scare them away. For anyone visiting Carlsbad, I highly recommend closing the day out with this event.

Logistics: Carlsbad Caverns really is easiest to access via private transportation. From the visitor center within the park, it is easy to get to the main caverns and most of the tours on foot.