Lantern Light in Carlsbad Caverns National Park

January 30th – February 2nd

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Carlsbad, New Mexico

On to Carlsbad Caverns National Park! It’s so close to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park that we were able to stay at the same campground just inside of New Mexico from Texas. Carlsbad Caverns National Monument was created in 1923 by President Calvin Coolidge and then it was made into a national park in 1930.

We are so serious.

Here is a model of the cave in the visitor center. That long plastic tube is the elevator from the visitor center into the cave. Behind Camrin you can see the model of the natural entrance that the bats can fly out of and people can walk into. We love a good national park visitor center. They are like little free museums. A great place to learn about the history of the area.

To get into the cave you take a path around the visitor center to the Natural Entrance. Unfortunately, at the beginning of February, the bats have all migrated to Mexico for the winter so we didn’t get to see them fly out.

To protect the bats from electromagnetic waves and flashes, electronic devices are not allowed to be powered on while the nightly bat flight is in progress. It helps prevent bat collisions too since so many bats fly out at once.

The cave entrance! Time to go down.

A long way down! Here is the winding ramp of the Natural Entrance. A lot of switchbacks, but is pretty easy to go down. We wouldn’t want to go up it though. We got here early and it’s still the off season so there weren’t many people.

Daylight filters down into the cave while warm spotlights highlight features throughout. You don’t really need a flashlight for the cave but it’s nice to have one to explore beyond the spotlit areas.

Since nobody else was around we did some light painting!
This is a long exposure shot with Camrin running down the ramp while her headlamp is on.

Thankfully, all of the signs are backlit so you can easily see what the feature that you’re looking at has been named. This is the beautiful Whales Mouth. Wonder why its called that? 😉

This long exposure of Devil’s Den ended up being beautiful! Sometimes you don’t know what you’ll get until the photo shows up.
When life gives you an empty cave you have to make the most of it!

Here’s a large pillar of flowstone right next to the path. It was so beautiful and odd to look at.

Cave popcorn! This is caused by the splatters from droplets hitting the walls of the cave for thousands of years or water seeping through the walls.

Wait… What is this?
It’s a Cafeteria! This was built in the 1920’s and used to be a destination for its futuristic look. This is one place you can go to eat 750 feet below ground. They even used to sell cigars… in a cave… wow.

Now it’s fairly stripped down to protect the cave inhabitants. No more ovens and fryers, just packaged sandwiches and salads. The lights are turned down because the bats won’t fly through it if the lights are on. The parks have even fought to remove the cafeteria altogether. It is certainly an odd sight to go from natural cave to a futuristic-looking cafeteria. Definitely a relic from another time.

The cave itself is very beautiful though. There is a reason they call this the big room. Several large commercial airplanes could fit into this room.

Look, Mom! we’re in a cave!

This beautiful formation is just past Rock of Ages and looks like trees growing out of the walls of the cave with more of the Big Room in the distance. Once we were done exploring everything we wanted to see it was time to get in the elevator and take the easy way out. You can walk back out the natural entrance if you want to but it’s a pretty steep upward hike. Now, back to the BLM campsite!

The farmer was there to check on the cows and they all came running for fresh hay. This little calf stopped to moo at our truck. The most adorable way to get yelled at.

In deep thought, or daydreaming about large bales of sweet hay.

Driving our truck, Tina, through the desert.

Next Day

Morning at the campsite.

The next day we went back to the National Park for the candlelight hike (lefthand tunnel tour) we purchased the day before. Only 15 people are allowed on the hike each day so it’s good to reserve your place a day in advance, maybe even earlier during the busy season. There are a few overlooks and trails above ground in the park. This is a shot of the winding road that snakes its way up to the visitor center.

Desert grass found on our hike

Hanging out in the visitor center waiting for our tour to start. Laura is as lovely as ever.

The gift shop here is massive and sells a lot of non-cave-related stuff. It’s pretty absurd, like that 1920’s cave cafeteria. Guess we’ve been in so many gift shops in the national parks we’re getting a little sick of them.

Lantern Tour Time!

It’s time to start our orientation program for our candlelight hike. Look at these cute little lanterns!!!

Time to enter the tiny elevator with a bunch of strangers. The windows on the side of the elevator cars are a little unnerving since it shows you the amount of rock you’re descending under.

Our ranger gives us the history of the cave. Hollywood films have been shot here, and many people have been exploring this cave for a long time, like the famous photographer Ansel Adams.

Candlelight is a great way to take a historical tour of the cave.

Our tour group lighting the way.

We sat down for a chat and then one by one the ranger had us all blow out our candles. It was a deep darkness that is hard for your brain to comprehend. Laura is afraid of the dark, so maybe only one of us liked this part.