Spend one day exploring Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the Big Room Trail in Southern New Mexico.
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60 mi
While on a Spring Break road trip to visit all of the National Parks in Texas and Southern New Mexico, Carlsbad Caverns NP was our last stop before heading home. We had already gone to Big Bend National Park, White Sands National Park, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Getting There
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located in Southeastern New Mexico near the border with Texas in the United States in North America. It is about 150 miles east of El Paso, Texas, which is the closest major airport, about a 2-hour drive away.
Best Time to Go
Carlsbad Caverns is a great place to visit any time of the year and is open year-round but would be best in the summer months between late May (Memorial Day Weekend) through October to view the Bat Flight Program. This is also a great time since it stays cool down in the caves so the warm desert temperatures aren’t an issue. You may want to bring a light jacket in case it’s chilly in the cave.
Day One
Breakfast at the Hotel
We started our day with breakfast at the hotel early in the morning. When we travel and stay at hotels, I try to find ones with a decent free breakfast. It helps us save money, have a warm breakfast, and get more variety than we do with the food we bring to a hotel room.
Leave for Carlsbad Caverns
By 8 AM we were in the car leaving for Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We had tickets for the 10:30 entry time but wanted to give ourselves time to explore the park before the tour. Unfortunately, the day we went to Carlsbad was a rainy overcast day so we didn’t do any of the above-ground hikes.
Photo at the Sign & Scenic Drive
As with all of the parks, we had to stop at the entry sign. Sadly, there isn’t a camera stand like some of the parks have and there weren’t any visitors around to help us take the photo. My phone ended up focusing on the ground in front of us instead of us or the sign so it’s a bit blurry, but it’s us!
From the entrance sign, it’s about a 7-mile scenic drive to get to the visitor center and entrance to the caverns.
Carlsbad Caverns entrance sign
Visitor Center
When you first get to the visitor center, get in line for your entrance tickets. In our experience, as it got later in the day the long lines started to wrap around the visitor center. They will give you general information about the tour and where to go when it’s your entry time.
After securing the entry time tickets for our family and showing our pass so we didn’t have to pay the park entrance fee, we went to check out the gift shop. I collect the Passport Book stamps so got that from the bookstore as well as a Christmas ornament for my travel tree. The boys also like to get a stuffed animal from every place we visit in the National Park Service. I thought they would buy a bat since we were at a cave system known for bats but they both opted for a small bird that makes noise.
Tyler
Ryan
Junior Ranger/Senior Ranger
Talk to the Park Ranger at the information booth to get your Junior Ranger and Senior Ranger book. This was the first time I’d heard about a Senior Ranger program and now I want to see what other parks offer it!
Through the ranger books, we had to walk around all of the educational exhibits in the visitor center to fill in the pages of our books. Having these was the best way to spend the time we had in the building before our tour. If the weather was nicer, we would have considered doing some of the above-ground trails while we waited for our tour time.
Big Room Trail Cavern Tour
The entry-time tickets are good for one hour starting at the time on your ticket. They’ll make announcements throughout the visitor center building to meet by the elevator or the Natural Entrance, depending on which way you are choosing to enter the caverns. The park rangers will give you important information about the caverns then send you on your way.
We chose to take the elevator down to the cavern instead of the Natural Entrance Trail because I was having pain in my knee that prevented me from being able to make the walk downhill. As you enter the cavern, you’ll walk across a barrier that cleans your shoes to help prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome to the Brazilian Free-Tailed Bats and other bats that call Carlsbad Caverns home.
One of the best things about this tour was the self-guided aspect. Once you are in the cavern, you can take as much time as you want to walk through the paved pathway to view all of the amazing rock formations.
Ryan’s favorite thing to see was the Bottomless Pit. It isn’t bottomless, but about 140 feet deep and you can’t see the bottom from the walk. Tyler liked seeing the soda straws in the cavern.
Tyler and Ryan in the caverns
Carlsbad Caverns Big Room
Carlsbad Caverns Big Room
Carlsbad Caverns Big Room
Carlsbad Caverns Big Room
Carlsbad Caverns Big Room
Big Room
Lunch at Red Chimney BBQ
After we finished our tour and drove through Carlsbad Caverns, we were all hungry. I was planning on getting lunch at the underground snack bar, but it wasn’t open when we were there. On the way back to our hotel in the town of Carlsbad, New Mexico, I started looking up food and restaurant options. I found Red Chimney BBQ so we decided to give that a try.
I’m so glad we stopped here, it was the best place at that time. The restaurant had picnic tables and regular tables inside and it was a cozy BBQ restaurant. The service was great with very friendly servers and the food was ready quickly. Speaking of the food, this was delicious! We all inhaled our food with no leftovers. And, with so many great options, Tyler and Ryan both tried something new! I got a BBQ baked potato which was perfect.
Hotel
We ended our day back at the hotel in Carlsbad. Justin and I went to the hot tub while the boys swam in the pool for a while. Back in the room, we all ended up taking a quick nap before packing our bags as we were heading home first thing in the morning.