Today we traveled to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I saw the caverns in 1969 or 1970 but Donna has never seen them. We went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky last year and Carlsbad Caverns is far and away more impressive. The rooms and chambers are many times larger that those at Mammoth Cave.
The entrance to the park
Donna at the entrance to the visitor center
The natural entrance to the caverns. You have a choice of entering the caverns at the natural entrance or taking the elevator down to the main caverns. We chose the natural entrance which adds about a mile to the self guided tour which makes the tour about 2.8 miles altogether. The main caverns are about 800 feet underground the "Big Room" is about 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 255 feet high at the highest point. 250 million years ago this area of New Mexico was an inland sea. The caverns were formed when the sea dried up and surface water eroded the limestone.
A formation on the way to the main caverns
One of the large caverns at the 800 foot level
The rest of the photos are of formations in the main caverns
Note the people near the center of the image - helps you visualize the scale of things
The caverns were quite impressive and we would recommend stopping here to anyone traveling to this part of the country.
We are leaving our BLM campsite in the morning - next stop - Roswell, New Mexico.
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