Carlsbad Caverns isn’t the longest cave in the world, or the largest, or the deepest. But it’s arguably one of the most spectacular caves ever discovered.
The otherworldly sights include millions of delicate features as shown in this photo, dozens of dinosaur-size monuments, and a massive room larger than a sports stadium. These priceless treasures hide in a cool, dark world under 46,755 surface acres in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico.
The best place to start your tour of Carlsbad Caverns is at the Natural Entrance. This large opening formed when part of the cave’s ceiling collapsed thousands of years ago. In the late 1800s, cowboys discovered the cave when they noticed billowing clouds of black smoke emerging from the ground. Upon closer inspection, the cowboys realized the smoke was actually swarms of bats leaving the cave at dusk in search of their nightly meal.
This Bat Flight Amphitheater was constructed at the Natural Entrance to enable visitors to comfortably watch the bats at dusk in summer and early fall.
The Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns is truly big: a 250-foot high ceiling covers a massive 8.2-acre room that could hold six football fields. This chamber contains dozens of giant speleothems (cave formations) up to 6 stories tall, as well as millions of elegant tiny formations.
Unlike most tourist caves, Carlsbad Caverns only uses white light so you can see the true color of the formations. However, because of the low-light conditions, these photos often fail to capture the true, generally whiter color of these caves.
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