Journey to the Center of the Earth

16 Mar 2025

We continued past Lincoln National Forest for a few hours, routing around to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. But we passed it by because we were staying at Sunset Reef Campground, a first-come, first-serve campground run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). We arrived at 9am and were pleased to find open spots.

However, upon starting to set up the tent we were surprised by how firm the ground was. We wound up pounding our tent stakes into the ground for almost 30 minutes, where usually that part is done in 5 minutes.

It's a good thing the ground was so hard though, we were expecting gusts up to 90 mph before we left! We even lined the windward side with big rocks to help keep the tent grounded!

Welcome to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico!

But before we get to the caverns themselves, we should talk about all these deserts we've visited. White Sands National Park had us enter the Chihuahuan Desert. That's one of the four deserts in the contiguous United States. At this point, we've visited all four deserts:
  • The Great Basin Desert in parts of Zion National Park, UT
  • The Mojave Desert in Death Valley National Park, CA, Joshua Tree National Park, CA, and Red Rock Canyon, NV
  • The Sonoran Desert in Saguaro National Park, AZ
  • The Chihuahuan Desert in White Sands National Park, NM, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM, and soon, Guadelupe Mountains National Park, TX, Fort Davis National Historic Site, TX, and Big Bend National Park, TX

The outside of Carlsbad Caverns looks about as you'd expect for a desert, full of sparse vegetation and rocky hills.

On our way to the cave entrance, we spied the administrative buildings, and they are some of the prettiest we've encountered the whole journey.

The natural entrance is a sight to behold, with a stunning walk down into the cavern. We were getting a bit of vertigo with the switchbacks down into the cavern.

Though we struggled with the bright light outside the caverns a bit

Our descent down the main corridor toward the Big Room left us awestruck. This cavern has so many decorations. If you want some more fun on the journey with us, try to guess what kind of rock formation each photo with a orange border is showing. Click or tap on the icon to reveal the answer. Click or tap on the icon to make the photo larger.
Here's the types of formations that limestone caves like these have: Stalagmites, Stalactites, Columns, Spongework, Ore Veins, Cave Popcorn, and Flowstone

A Gypsum ore vein
Stalactites on the far side of the cavern
Standard selfie formation for us
Non-standard selfie formation
Central column covered in draperies standing in a cave pond with stalactites above
Large stalagmite covered in draperies
Draperies and flowstone (if you read the sign first, you cheated!)
Stalagmite with many draperies
A very tall stalagmite with some drapery and a Cory for scale
Cave popcorn
Cave popcorn behind old stairs that used to be the primary cave access
Spongework
It looks like an animal!

How'd you do with your guesses? That was all just in the corridor down to the Big Room. From here on out, all the cave photos are from one giant room that we did a circle of. It was truly stunning.

This is a drapery as well, and is probably our favorite formation

Another cool feature of the cavern was the elevators out. The elevators didn't read a floor number during travel, but instead used the feet below the surface. We descended to a depth of 750 feet before getting an elevator ride back up.

The visitor center had some really cool exhibits, including an exhibit about the bats that roost in the cave in summer, leading to amazing viewing at night when they come out.

Finally we headed out of the park, stopping on a small loop around a canyon meadow that had rock shelves that could act as natural shelters

Back in town, we found the local watering hole, Guadelupe Mountains Brewing Co. They served fantastic pizza as well as the craft brews.

We would have stayed in Carlsbad Caverns for at least another day if not more. But due to the recent presidential administration's layoffs of over 10,000 National Park Service employees, Carlsbad Caverns has had to cancel all ranger-guided tours due to low staffing. The park has also had to reduce the hours that people can enter the cavern. Other parks are having similar struggles, and with the National Parks having a record-breaking 331.8 million visitors last year, these policies have a broad and detrimental impact.