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.

 

 

 

 

Stalactites hang from the ceiling of a cave.  Stalagmites rise from the floor of a cave.  You can keep them straight by remembering that “stalactites hang TIGHT from the ceiling, while stalagmites MIGHT someday reach the ceiling.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowstones are composed of sheetlike deposits of calcite formed when thin layers of these deposits build on each other, sometimes becoming rounder as the deposit gets thicker.  (Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giant Dome, a 62-foot tall stalagmite in the Hall of Giants.

   

 

 

 

When stalagmites reach the ceiling, stalactites reach the floor, or both meet somewhere in the middle, the resulting floor-to-ceiling speleothem is called a column or pillar.

 

 

 

 

Temple of the Sun

 

 

 

 

Can you guess the name of this formation?  If you’re laughing like Beavis & Butthead, you probably guessed right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early cave explorers had to cope with more primitive means of navigating Carlsbad Caverns.  There were no elevators or paved walkways.  In 1924, Willis T. Lee led an expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society.  The group had to descend into the Lower Cave on this 90-foot ladder made of wire and oak branches.  Hopefully it was in better shape at the time.

 

 

 

 

Peering down from the Big Room into the Lower Cave, we see a group of tourists exploring the black depths.

 

 

 

 

This looks like a vampire cave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next: Carlsbad Bats >>