The basic entry fee allows you to take either, or both, self-guiding tours. Rangers at the information desk can provide information on special ranger activities. They can tell you about wild cave tours that may be available. Big Room Route The basic tour through Carlsbad Cavern is the Big Room Route, a one-mile, self-guiding, underground stroll around the perimeter of the largest room in the cave. Highly decorated and immense, the 8.
You can get to the Big Room by elevators located in the visitor center. The relatively level and well-lit trails make this the ideal tour for visitors with limited time or walking difficulties. Portions of the Big Room are accessible to visitors in wheelchairs; a map is available at the visitor center information desk.
Visitors in wheelchairs should only go into the Big Room with assistance. Natural Entrance Route The Natural Entrance route is a self-guiding tour available to visitors with plenty of time and in good physical condition. This one-mile tour follows the traditional explorers' route, entering the cavern through the large historic natural entrance.
The Natural Entrance route descends over feet into the Earth following steep and narrow trails through a tall and spacious trunk passage called the Main Corridor. The route culminates in the lunchroom and underground rest area, near the elevators and the Big Room route starting point. Visitors in good health who plan to take both self-guiding tours may enjoy starting with the Natural Entrance route.
Highlights along this route include Bat Cave, Devil's Spring, Green Lake Overlook, and the Boneyard, a complex maze of highly dissolved limestone rock reminiscent of Swiss cheese. Watch for Iceberg Rock, a single ,ton boulder that fell from the cave ceiling thousands of years ago.
Departing from the underground rest area, the Kings Palace tour descends to the deepest portion of the cavern with paved trails, feet beneath the desert surface. Look for speleothems or cave decorations including helictites, draperies, columns, and soda straws.
Rangers often conduct blackout programs during this tour, briefly turning off all artificial lights to reveal the permanent inky blackness of the natural cave environment. Reservations are suggested; contact the park or see our website. A separate fee is charged for this tour. All trails in the cave are paved and well lit. You should wear comfortable, closed-toe shoes with rubber soles for maximum safety and traction. You may want to bring a camera and a flashlight.
Strollers are not allowed in any underground cave area, but infant backpacks are permitted on the self-guiding tours. A pre-tour restroom stop is advisable because restrooms are only available in the visitor center and at the underground rest area and lunchroom. All tours are preceded by a mandatory cavern orientation briefing to promote resource protection and cavern safety. All tours exit the cave by elevator. Rangers are available throughout the cave to protect park resources and to help you with information and questions.
On both self-guiding tours, audio guides are available to provide you with in-depth information about ecology, history, and cave formation. To enjoy the natural quiet of the cave, please speak quietly. The cavern is open daily except December 25 and operates on summer and non-summer hourly schedules. For current hours and information contact the park at www. To ensure that your tour of Carlsbad Cavern is comfortable, enjoyable, and safe, please follow these important rules and recommendations.
Beyond the trails are steep drop-offs where you could fall and injure yourself, and there are unlighted passages where you could get lost. Also, fragile formations on the floor, walls, and ceilings can be damaged by anyone straying from the trails. Kennel services are available at the visitor center. Visitor Center The visitor center has information about the park's underground, mountains, and desert.
Publications, topographic maps, a schedule of activities, and exhibits are available. Rangers can help you plan your visit. A restaurant, gift shop, bookstore, and kennel are available at the visitor center. Services are available year-round except December The visitor center has guide booklets. Trails The park's trail system includes a short nature trail and, for experienced hikers, over 50 miles of primitive backcountry trails.
Trailheads are located along each of the park roads. Backcountry hikers should carry an ample supply of water and a topographic map. Overnight hikers must register at the visitor center. Camping and Picnicking There is no developed campground in the park, but the nearby towns of Whites City and Carlsbad have several.
These towns have lodging, restaurants, gasoline stations, and other services. Camping in the backcountry requires a permit, available free at the visitor center.
Picnic tables are near the visitor center and in Walnut Canyon. Rattlesnake Springs has a picnic area with tables, grills, drinking water, and restrooms. Climate Expect warm summers and mild winters. Thunderstorms occur in summer, posing the danger of lightning in higher areas and of floods in low-lying areas. Slaughter Canyon Cave Ranger-guided tours of Slaughter Canyon Cave take you into an underground wilderness without electricity, paved walkways, or modern conveniences.
In this wild cave, darkness is penetrated only by the light of flashlights carried by tour members. Highlights of the two-hour tour are the sparkling, crystal-decorated Christmas Tree column and the Chinese Wall, a delicate, ankle-high rimstone dam. Old bat guano mining excavations can be seen. Sturdy walking shoes, flashlights, and water are required. Tours are given daily in the summer season and weekends the rest of the year. A fee is charged; reservations are required.
For details contact the park or check our website. The contents of brochures, site bulletins and trading cards denoted with a colored caption can be viewed by clicking on the cover. Most modern-day brochures, however, are cover only denoted by a white caption due to photograph copyrights. These items are historical in scope and are intended for educational purposes only; they are not meant as an aid for travel planning.
The dates under each brochure do not reflect the complete range of years that a particular brochure was issued. Rothman, Gehlbach, Britt Bousman, c McKnight, Spring Genoways and Robert J. Baker, eds. Brand and Alonzo D. Van Devender, W. Geoffrey Spaulding, and Arthur M. Phillips, III. Marshall C. Northington and Tony L. Fullington and Don Harrington. Moody and David E. Logan and Craig C.
Lundelius, Jr. Geoffrey Spaulding and Paul S. Genoways, Robert J. Baker and John E. August, John W. Clarke, M. Because these activities have the potential to adversely impact cave and karst resources in the park, it is vital that the park continue to identify and monitor those resources.
Designated by the U. In addition, the park has specific enabling legislation which provides broad congressional direction regarding the primary purposes of the park. Numerous other federal laws bring additional layers of protection to the park and its resources. Cave specific legislation includes the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of and the Lechuguilla Cave Protection Act of , the latter of which was created to protect that specific cave from extractive activities near the park.
Day to day management is directed by the Park Superintendent. Park management plans for the property have identified a number of resource protection measures, such as environmental assessment processes, zoning, ecological integrity, visitor monitoring, and education programs to address pressures arising from issues both inside and outside the park.
Long-term protection and effective management of the site from potential threats require continued monitoring of resource conditions, additional research, and assessment of potential threats. In Carlsbad Caverns National Park, these vital signs include air quality, climate, invasive plants, landbirds, landscape dynamics, spring ecosystems, uplands vegetation and soils. Air quality monitoring of volatile organic compounds is used to determine threats from sources outside of the park, especially from adjacent oil and gas fields.
About us. Special themes. Major programmes. For the Press. Help preserve sites now! Join the , Members. Search Advanced. By Properties. He runs a tourist camp near the caverns. Only 25 miles from Carlsbad, N.
The Caverns consist of a series of loft and spacious underground chambers and connecting corridors, with alcoves extending off to the sides that are of great beauty.
Most impressive is the famous Big Room, nearly feet long, feet wide, and at one place feet high. Writers have exhausted their adjectives trying to describe the strange beauty of Carlsbad Caverns.
They go into verbal ecstatics over its cathedral-like doors, its frozen encases of milk-white flowstone, its glittering stalactites suspended like chandeliers hundreds of feet above the floor, the giant stalagmites which have been 50,, years in the making.
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