Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns
We spent the day touring the Caverns and it was just as spectacular as the tourist brochures tell you it will be. Discovered by Jim White, a 16 year old cowboy in 1898 and really unrecognized for many years it is now a national park.
We first saw it the night before with all of the bats coming out of the natural opening to the cave. There were thousands and during the summer months as many as 300,000 to 1 mil Freewing Mexican bats come out of this opening. This is what brought Jim Whites attention to the cave.
We descended 780 feet the first time in an elevator to take the Castle tour. Here you see the Kings Room, the Queen’s Room and the guide gives you a good overview of the Caverns. One great vault after another spreads before you with giant stalactites and stalagmites everywhere you look. This was enormous with rooms reaching some 200 ft high and hundreds of feet long. And they just continue everywhere.
Nest we took a self guided walking tour of the Great Room and after another 1 ½ miles of walking it was time for a break. This place just keeps going on an on forever and everywhere you look it is amazing.
Lastly we went down the natural entrance by walking back and for the on switchbacks till we had descended the whole 780 feet as the early Jim White might have done only he did it with ropes and a single lantern made from a coffee pot.