Carlsbad Caverns is located about 60 miles north of Guadalupe Mountains National Park and approximately 20 miles southwest of the city of Carlsbad, NM. The landscape surrounding this underground Park is much like that of the Guadalupe Mountains - dry, drab, hot and parched!
Natural Entrance
In the late 1800's, Jim White, a 16-year old farm hand began exploring the depths of the caverns. Drawn to the Natural Entrance by the sight of hundreds of thousands of Bats making their nightly feeding flight, White became curious about their habitat and began venturing deeper and deeper into this massive hole in the earth.
In the summer months, the Mexican Free-Tailed Bats take up residency deep within the confines of the Caverns. At dusk it is said that spectators sitting in this stone amphitheater can witness the nightly exodus of hundreds of thousands of these tiny creatures as they fly off to feast on the local moth population.
Terry and I bit and sat down to watch this amazing nocturnal exhibition. Much to our dismay, the Bats had decided to take the night off! There were about as many Bats leaving the cave as there are spectators in this picture! My guess is the full moon spooked the little fellows. Think about it. If you are a Bat, you are used to very dark spaces. This particular evening, the moon was extremely bright. They decided to hang around the cave rather than expose their sensitive little eyes to the full moon!
Photo Credit: Terry Binkele's IPhone
The Natural Entrance descent into the Cavern is very steep. Within minutes, you will find yourself a good hundred feet lower than the Cave entrance. The paved path to the lower portion of the Caverns is about a mile long and descends a total of 755 feet from the surface.
The lazy man's method of exploring the deep parts of the Cavern is to ride the Elevator located within the Visitor's Center. This ride takes a total of 58 seconds to drop to the bottom.
Jim and the other early explorers of the Caverns did not have the luxury of paved paths or speedy elevators. They had no idea what lay below as they crept down via wood and wire step ladders.
In addition, the earliest explorers had only candlelight to help guide their way. Candles give off a wee bit of light compared to the florescent and incandescent lights that now help guests easily navigate the paved pathways.
At the depth of 200 feet below the surface, the Natural Entrance path takes you close by the Bat Cave, where the Mexican Free-Tailed Bats supposedly hang out. The Park Service, however, has quarantined this section to keep the peeps from peeping at the Bats!
The IPhone is an amazing instrument! While I labored away to get the right exposures down in the dimly lit Cave, Terry was happily snapping away with her IPhone and came up with some incredible images!
Photo Credit: Terry's IPhone
A Speleothem at Devil's Spring
Five hundred feet down as you descend into the Main Corridor, you'll come across the Devil's Den. Here you will find this Speleothem growing out of the pool of water. As long as water continues to drip on this column...it will continue to grow.
Cave Drapes
Calcite-laden water slowly flowing over rocks will eventually create thin wafer-like formations resembling drapery or ribbons. The very thin sheets of calcite drapery take on the appearance of strips of bacon when illuminated with a powerful flashlight.
I haven't had bacon for weeks due to the local fire restrictions!
The shapes and forms of the stalactites and stalagmites let one's imagination run wild! With an open mind, you will see Walruses, Jaba the Hut, Alien's and Predators. Space Monsters and Mushrooms. Layer Cakes and Jelly Fish. Bacon and boobs. Giants and genitalia!
Just go with it! You'll see what I mean.
SpongeBob at the Boneyard
"C's" and "G's"
By the way, stalactites are the features hanging down from the ceiling. The "c" in the word represents "ceiling!" The stalagmites are those formations that have grown from the ground up. the "g" for ground! So there you go!
Left Hand Tunnel Lantern Experience
On Day 2 of our Carlsbad Cavern visit, we embarked upon a Guided Tour known as the Left Hand Tunnel. This 2-hour tour is well worth the seven scoots. The Tour is limited to no more than 15 Cavers and takes you into an undeveloped section of the Cavern along an unpaved trail.
The path of this Tour does not show up on the Park's Trail Maps as the Rangers do not want the general public to know where it's at. They asked us NOT to post the directions to the entrance of Left Hand Tunnel online or in our Blogs...so I will adhere to their requests. If you'd like to find the whereabouts of Left Hand Tunnel...go visit this incredible Park and do take this Tour!
The primary reason for this is there is no lighting system within the Left Hand Tunnel and the Park Service does not want people wandering around in the dark. To navigate this section of the Cavern, you are given a candle...just like Jim White used a hundred years ago when he was exploring.
And once we were all deep within the Left Hand Tunnel, the Ranger had all of us blow out our lanterns...one by one...until there was total darkness. Eerie sensation to be completely devoid of light! Sound seems to be accentuated. Sight completely extinguished!
The entire story... Chapter 25 – Carlsbad Caverns.
May 15th
After hiking Devil’s Hall at Guadalupe, Terry and I moseyed up to Carlsbad to check out the Caverns. For the next couple of nights we shall be roughing it at the Hampster Inn so we’re in no hurry to set up “camp”. We’ve been sleeping in the Hob for the past 5 nights and our bodies are beginning to radiate a rather campy odor. The single Hob Bath we took after hiking Guadalupe Peak was ok…yet, nothing beats a good old fashioned hot shower! Also, its time to wash our dusty, sweaty hiking clothes.
May 16th
There are three ways to visit Carlsbad Caverns. Two are self-guided walking tours and the third option is to participate in a Ranger led guided tour. A couple of months prior to our visit to Carlsbad Caverns I read that it would be prudent to make reservations in advance for any of the Ranger led tours of the Caverns as they tend to sell out quickly. We purchased two tours – The King’s Palace for today and the Left Hand Tunnel for tomorrow. In addition to the King’s Palace Tour, Terry and I have decided we’ll do both of the self-guided walks as well – the Main Corridor and the Big Room.
The King’s Palace Tour begins at 10:00 am. We arrived at the Caverns to check in at 8:45am. Inside the Visitor’s Center, the lady at the Information Booth tells us we will need to meet Ranger Mark at the Rest/Lunch Area 10 minutes before the Tour begins. The Rest Area is 755 feet directly below the Information Booth. There are two ways to get to the Rest Area – elevator or walking down the Main Corridor via the Natural Entrance.
She leads us to believe we have enough time to walk it so Terry and I proceed to hike to the Natural Entrance. Heck, we’ve got an hour to navigate the mile long descent into the Caverns. Let’s give it a go.
When we are greeted by the two Rangers at the Natural Entrance who are there to go over the “cave rules” with every visitor, they both tell us we’re crazy to try to hurry down the Main Corridor in an hour to catch our Palace Tour. “There’s much to be seen and you really don’t want to rush yourselves. We suggest you take the elevator down for the Tour. Then come back up here and take your time enjoying the Main Corridor.” This makes sense to us as we wondered why the InfoLady would steer us astray.
The King’s Palace Tour is an hour and a half walkabout available for $8 per person and accepts up to 55 people. It is rated as a moderately strenuous walking tour because of an 80’ accent back up to the Main Corridor at the conclusion of the tour. Eighty feet? You’ve got to be kidding! This is a paved trail! Terry and I have been climbing up 2000’ and more on skree! I suppose this trail rating is a sad commentary as to the physical condition of many Cave Visitors! Folks, if climbing up 80’ is “moderately strenuous” …its time to get out and exercise!
Our Tour has 52 guests and one Ranger. Ranger Mark does a nice job of crowd control while explaining how these caves were formed and how Jim White explored them. The Tour take you into four naturally decorated chambers and descends to the deepest part of the Caverns open to the public. At one point along the Tour, Mark extinguishes all of the artificial lighting in the Queen’s Chamber so all of us can experience total darkness. As he does this, Mark tells us a story about young Jim White who, when exploring a deep part of the cavern, knocked over his lantern and out went his light source. Jim finds himself in total darkness…as we now sit. He had only three matches left. Mark strikes the first match and explains that Jim used it to find his lantern. (It is amazing how much light a single match projects in total darkness) The second match was a dud. With only one match left standing between life and death…Jim strikes the match and is able to relight his lantern. Mark does all of this with great drama...and makes his point. Modern day Cavers have at least three alternate sources of light whenever descending into the pitch-black world of caving.
In the King’s Palace chamber, we are now 829 feet below the surface yet the air is cool and clean. The temperature hovers around 56° year round. When we surface, the daytime high will be close to 100°. Where does the air come from? Mark explains that like humans, caves breathe too! Due to differences in air pressure throughout the Caves, there is a constant flow of fresh air coming in from and exhaled thru the Natural Entrance.
As we view the many formations along the Tour route, Mark explains how to tell the difference between those formations hanging from the ceiling of the cavern (Stalactites) and those growing from the ground up (Stalagmites). The “c” in Stalactite denotes “Ceiling”. The “g” in Stalagmites = “ground”. So there you go!
One of the most fascinating features along the Palace Tour is the 7-foot long “soda straw” formation Mark points at toward the end of the program. All stalactites and stalagmites begin as a single drop of calcified water. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind a calcium carbonate skeleton that over thousands of years, creates the incredible formations found in the Caverns. A Soda Straw formation appears as such. A very thin, delicate tubular structure hollow on the inside to allow the water to drip down and through. Most of the soda Straws Mark pointed out to us were anywhere between 6”-18” in length. The seven-footer is definitely the prize Straw!
If you go to the Caverns, be sure to bring a powerful flashlight! Ranger Mark was armed with an industrial strength unit that was capable of projecting strong light a good hundred feet…or more. The artificial light used to help visitors navigate along the pathways gives off a very soft, subtle amount of light. Without a more powerful light source, you will miss much of the intricate detail to be discovered along the trail. We had our LED Hikers headlamps. Not good enough. Next time I’m taking Ranger grade flashlight loaded with a half dozen “C” Batteries!
Natural Entrance
After the King’s Palace Tour, we took the elevator back up to the Visitor’s Center, went out to the Highlander and made ourselves a Salami and Pepper Jack cheese sandwich for lunch. The only time we buy peppered salami is when we’re doing our Park Tours. For some unknown reason, this particular sammie tastes incredible. Here’s the recipe: take two slices of whole wheat bread. Smother them with mayo, creamed horseradish and a healthy glob of French’s Horseradish Mustard. Place 6-8 slices of peppered salami on one piece of bread. Two slices of Pepper Jack Cheese on the other. Scoop out a healthy portion of avocado and smear it on top of the cheese. Mesh the two pieces of bread together. Cut in half. Pop open a Fat Tire and enjoy!
After lunch, Terry and I revisited the Natural Entrance to begin our journey down through the Main Corridor. This is where Jim White and all others entered the Cavern. Today there is a paved path from the mouth of the entrance all the way down to the Big Room. A thousand years ago, Native Americans ventured into the cave…but only the first several hundred feet. In the 1800’s, early explorers were drawn to the caves by the thousands of bats seen rising out of the cave entrance every evening during the summer months. Soon thereafter, Bat Guano became the “mineral of choice” and lured a new breed of miner to the Caverns.
Jim White wasn’t interested in Bat Poo. He was fascinated by the incredible features found within this strange underground world. In the late 1800’s, Jim began exploring its depth and breadth. Without paved pathways, he had to concoct makeshift ladders and rely on ropes to lower himself into the dark chambers. Few believed Jim’s tales of the amazing world that lie below the surface. It wasn’t until 1915 when photographer Ray Davis captured the allure of the Caverns on film did the outside world come to believe White’s stories.
In 1923, Carlsbad Cavern became a National Monument and in 1930 it was designated as our country’s 24th National Park. It isn’t the longest Cave (Mammoth Caves in Kentucky holds that honor) and it isn’t the world’s largest or deepest. However the overall grandeur of this Cavern, its intricate and delicate features, it’s mystifying beauty will captivate your imagination forever.
Soon after descending down into the Main Corridor, the natural light from the Cave’s entrance begins to fade. You now enter Mother Nature’s incredible canvas that was beginning to take form 250 million years ago.
Highlights along the main Corridor include the Bat Cave (where the migratory Mexican Free-Tailed Bats hang), Devil’s Spring, Green Lake Overlook and the Boneyard – a complex maze of highly dissolved limestone rock.
The Big Room
The Big Room is the largest cavity within the Cavern. The one-mile circular trail takes a good two hours to explore and presents some of the Cavern’s most astounding features. While I fiddled around with my Canon Rebel attempting to discover the proper exposure and f-stop to capture these remarkable formations in low light, Terry happily snapped away with her IPhone capturing many outstanding images!
The Big Room houses 8.2 acres of incredible natural beauty. Highlights of the Big Room include the Hall of Giants – huge columns of stalagmites, the Bottomless Pit, Rock of Ages, the Painted Grotto and much more.
In 1986, a group of scientific Cavers were given permission to break into a small cave known as Misery Hole. What they discovered was a 112-mile cavern beholden to a spectacular yet fragile ecosystem. This new discovery is called Lechuguilla Cave and will most likely remain off limits to us plebes. There is, however, a kiosk in the Visitor’s Center that describes the fascinating features of Lechuguilla.
The Bats
We were told by friends that during our visit to Carlsbad Cavern, we must witness the nightly flight of the Mexican Free-Tailed Bats. These small mammals weighing no more than three nickels migrate each summer from Mexico and take up residency in the Caverns from mid May thru October where they give birth to their offspring.
Up to 400,000 Free-Tailers are said to spend the summer in Carlsbad…and their nightly exodus from the cave to feast upon the local moth population is supposed to be an incredible sight to see.
Terry and I took the bait and hung around the Caverns for an extra three hours awaiting the sun to set to watch this amazing nocturnal exhibition. This particular evening, the moon was full and shining brightly. When the chow bell rang for the bats to begin feeding on the local moth population, but a paltry few were up to the task! Much to our dismay, the Bats had decided to take the night off!
There were about as many Bats leaving the cave as there were spectators! My hypothesis - bats are nocturnal. Yes they have eyes that do function. Bats are not blind. But since they hang out in pitch-black caves during the day and feed only at night, a full moon must seem awful bright to them. My guess is the full moon spooked the little fellows. Think about it. If you are a Bat, you are used to very dark spaces. This particular evening, the moon was extremely bright. My bet is that rather than expose their sensitive little eyes to the comparative brightness of a full moon, they instead decided to hang around the cave.
Hence, I believe most of the flock decided to go hungry rather than be blinded by the moonlight! Just my theory…but what the heck!
May 17th - Left Hand Tunner Tour
We checked out of the Hampster this morning and headed back to the Caverns for our 9:00 am Left Hand Tunnel Tour. This 2-hour tour is well worth the seven scoots. The Tour is limited to no more than 15 Cavers and takes you into an undeveloped section of the Cavern along an unpaved trail.
The path of this Tour does not show up on the Park's Trail Maps as the Rangers do not want the general public to know its whereabouts. They asked us NOT to post the directions to the entrance of Left Hand Tunnel online or in our Blogs...so I will adhere to their requests. If you'd like to find the entry point of Left Hand Tunnel...go visit this incredible Park and do take this Tour!
The primary reason for this is there is no lighting system within the Left Hand Tunnel and the Park Service does not want people wandering around in the dark. To navigate this section of the Cavern, you are given a candle...just like Jim White used a hundred years ago when he was exploring.
Once we were all deep within the Left Hand Tunnel, Ranger Ellen had all of us blow out our lanterns...one by one...until there was total darkness. Eerie sensation to be completely devoid of light! Sound seems to be accentuated. Sight completely extinguished!
Picture taking was challenging in Left hand Tunnel unless you used a flash. However, the flash seemed to wash out the images so we simply enjoyed the Tour and bothered not to attempt any cave photography. Terry and I had captured the essence of the Caverns yesterday during our walkabout.
Our Cave exploration complete, we take the elevator up to the surface and head off to Sante Fe, New Mexico…half way between Carlsbad and our next destination – Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado.
Happy Trails friends!
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