Carlsbad Caverns National Park Is Where Stone Monarchs And Bats Take Flight

Driving through the unassuming town of Carlsbad, New Mexico, you’d never expect what lies beneath. Situated beneath hundreds of miles of scrubby, sun-baked desert, Carlsbad Caverns National Park has the element of surprise on its side. But those who know that appearances can be deceiving will be rewarded with an underground world of staggering scale and intricacy. Venture into the extensive caves that make up Carlsbad Caverns National Park, where lanterns reveal monarchs of stone, and you’ll soon forget the surface world that hides this park’s secrets so well.

History & Geography

Technically, Carlsbad Caverns National Park isn’t only the caves. Sure, they’re what visitors come to see, but the Chihuahan Desert on the surface is also protected. And while you might not think the scrubby, cactus-pocked landscapes on the surface are very interesting, biologists would beg to differ. That’s because it’s located in a zone where multiple regions meet: the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, and the Chihuahan Desert.

Careful observers will see flora, fauna, and geography characteristic of all of those regions. However, it most resembles the Chihuahan Desert, which covers much of northern Mexico and reaches its northernmost extent here, at the bottom of New Mexico. It’s one of the most biodiverse deserts on earth, with more native cactus species than any other location. Though not as immediately rewarding as the caverns, Carlsbad Caverns’ above-ground protected lands are just as fascinating.

But that’s not what brings people to this park. That would be its caves, which are as unusual in their origins as they are astonishing to see. While most caves are formed when rainwater cut channels through easily-dissolved limestone, these ones began when acidic groundwater mixed with rainwater to eat its way through the limestone remains of an ancient reef. It’s from the dissolving action of the resulting sulfuric acid that we get Carlsbad Caverns’ unusual network of passageways.

But leaving all that aside, keen-eyed readers might be raising their eyebrows now. A reef? You may ask. You mean to say that Carlsbad Caverns was underwater? Yes and no. While the caves themselves have nothing to do with the huge tropical sea that once covered this region, the limestone they’re carved from was left behind by the retreat of an ancient reef. As a result, this region is rich in fossils of ancient marine life. Though you won’t see much of that in the caverns themselves, it’s a great fun fact to have in your belt if you want to sound like an expert on this park.

At any rate, it certainly wasn’t clear to the people who originally publicized the caverns. Although the cave was well-known to various Native American groups in the region, the first modern American we know to have entered the cave - and the first to make it known to the general public - was a teenage cowboy named Jim White in 1896.

White chanced upon the cave while herding cattle, seeing what he thought was a plume of smoke rising from the ground. When he approached to investigate, he realized there was no smoke at all: what he was seeing was the flight of thousands of bats making their nightly exodus from the cave. This prompted White to explore further, and he made the first recorded journeys into the caverns. His efforts were largely responsible for the caverns’ growing popularity as a tourist attraction.

As a result of this early popularity, Carlsbad Caverns National Park was declared a National Monument (at that time called Carlsbad Cave). It then was redesignated as a National Park in 1930, then only the nineteenth park ever to be established.

What Lies Beneath: Unique Features of Carlsbad Caverns National Park

First and foremost, Carlsbad Caverns National Park is unusual for the way its caves originated. As we explained earlier, its formation wasn’t exactly typical for a North American cave system. And as a result, the caverns have a unique look and layout — some describe them as resembling swiss cheese! — that you’ll rarely find elsewhere. Deep in the park's caves, you'll find columns and draped stalactites so magnificent that they've earned royal titles; one popular cave has earned the name of "The King's Palace," while in the less-traveled Slaughter Canyon Cave, you'll find a an 89-foot-tall mineral column called the Monarch.

But what’s truly unusual about this park is a bit livelier. It’s numerous, awe-inspiring, and might just carry rabies. And if you’ve guessed by now that we’re talking about the caverns’ bat population, you’ve got it.

Every evening in the spring and summer, thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats leave their roosts in the cave to find food, a phenomenon found in few other places on Earth. It’s what Jim White saw when he first stumbled upon the caverns, and it remains one of the park’s most popular and awe-inspiring sights. These days, you can participate in ranger programs culminating in a front-row seat to the nightly bat flight every evening from April to October.

But it’s the caves that draw the crowds to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and they do boast one superlative that we’d be remiss not to mention. The Big Room Cave, or the Hall of the Giants, is the largest cave by volume in North America, so although there are two other cave-focused National Parks (South Dakota’s Wind Cave and Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave), Carlsbad Caverns wins by sheer scale. Walk inside and you won’t be remotely surprised.

Things to Do

Before we get into the specifics, there’s one thing you need to know about Carlsbad Caverns: if you want to partake in any park activity save for surface hiking, you’ll need to make a timed reservation. Although it’s sometimes possible to secure a time slot to enter the cave in-person if you show up as soon as the park opens, you’ll absolutely want to make an online reservation beforehand if you’re visiting at a busy time of year.

If you can’t swing a cave visit, there are reservation-free hiking trails at the surface level. Backpackers are drawn to the strenuous 12-mile Guadalupe Ridge trail, a daunting trek through the surface desert with an elevation change of over 2,000 feet. Though not for the faint of heart, it’s a favorite of hardcore backcountry hikers.

Luckily, if you do secure a time slot to enter the cave, you won’t have to work quite that hard. Keep in mind that the 1.25-mile Natural Entrance Trail into the Big Room is extremely steep and not recommended for people with certain medical conditions. Still, getting used to the eerie feeling of hiking underground is more than worth the effort it takes to enter the cave on foot. If you can’t manage the hike down, though, you can descend into the Big Room via an elevator and take the 1.25-mile Big Room Trail through the flat part of the cave.

Though the most famous parts of the cave are accessible on self-guided tours, true spelunkers can sign up for ranger-led tours of the Kings Palace or Lower Cave sections of Carlsbad Caverns. These are decidedly not a good fit for anyone who struggles with claustrophobia, but if you’re not content with the adventure a self-guided tour can provide, you’ll no doubt prefer it.

Finally, if you’re visiting between April and October, the Bat Flight Program is a can’t-miss nightly event. Carlsbad Caverns is a year-round park, as the area doesn’t usually get snow and the cave regularly remains at about the same temperature, but it’s worth planning a visit for the spring or summer just for the chance to see the bat flight.

It would be easy to pass by Carlsbad Caverns National Park without even knowing it was there, but that would be a loss. There are few National Park experiences as singularly awe-inspiring as descending into a cave you could fit a medieval cathedral inside, knowing that nothing more than water and minerals created all of the otherworldly formations all around you. So while it takes planning to end up in this remote corner of southern New Mexico, it’s worth doing. Hiding out in an easy-to-miss corner of an easy-to-miss state is one of the nation’s true natural wonders.