After hiking to the top of Texas the day before, heading underground the next seemed like the only sensible thing to do! Dad had visited as a kid and still had vague memories of the experience, but it was brand new for the kids and I. I had my reservations about visiting something so “touristy,” but the whole experience was streamlined and crowd maintenance was efficient. We reserved a time slot online 2 days before and we simply showed up before hand and checked in that we were in fact there. We ate our lunch, poked around the gift shop and explored the indoor exhibits until our entrance time. You had the option of starting at the elevator and going straight down then hiking up and out or reversing the order. We opted for some downhill hiking since the previous day’s uphill experience was still with us haha. After a brief orientation with a ranger about staying on the path and not touching formations, we made our descent.

The beginning of the caverns are litter with piles of guano and are quite pungent. Peak season for the Mexican Freetail bats had just ended, but a few full timers remained and a viewing of their evening emergence was a possibility later on. The park hadn’t resumed it’s ranger guided tours yet post covid. Instead, we rented audio guide handhelds. They were easy enough to use and all of the points of interest were clearly numbered for reference, but it was still slightly disappointing as Dad remembers the guide from the past visit as really adding to experience. Also, there are certain areas you can only access via guide that we didn’t get to see. But, the audio was very informative and did its best to be entertaining.

We continued to follow the paved path, taking in the unique and beautiful structures and listening to interesting history until we came into the Big Room. There, you could take a cut off to the elevator and exit or go the longer loop around the perimeter that ceased to be handicap accessible and see more structure. Obviously, we opted for the maximum experience.

Photography in the caverns was allowed, but quite tricky. Dad got better pictures than I could, but it really all comes down to, “you just had to be there.” Nothing will compare to laying your own eyes on it. My favorite “exhibit” was the area called Fairyland. It is covered in short stalagmites that resemble little “people” each with their own characteristics. You could stand there for hours and keep seeing something new. Ashlyn compared everything to food appearances. Archer theorized that the whole thing was made out of clay by some master architect and Weston wasn’t as interested in the main attractions as he was in shining the flashlight he brought in the all the dark corners looking for something new.

We moved through the tour slowly and hit every location on our guide, but still only managed to spend about 2 hours down below. We wanted to make it to 5 o’clock in the caverns so we could see the bats emerge after. But it was only 3:30 and a stormy cool front was making its way into the area. We opted to stay ahead of it and made our way to the hotel in Carlsbad. Our caverns visit was originally going to be a day trip from our camping location in Guadalupe Mountains, but the pending forecast and the previous nights struggle to sleep made us pack up camp and take it with us to Carlsbad. Glad we did! We enjoyed dinner out and rested well while it poured overnight.

Visiting the caverns is definitely something that should be visited at least once. I mostly feel like I am one and done with it. However, a new adjoining cavern was discovered in the mid 80s that is still only accessible by approved scientific researchers while they explore its pristine and unique ecosystem. If Lechuguilla Cave ever opened to the public, I would be persuaded to see what is going on back there. The kids would go back tomorrow, though!

-Lindsay