Our trip has taken us up mountains, over streams, into cities, through deserts, on lakes, and around giant sequoia trees. Today, it took us 750 feet underground in Carlsbad Caverns National Park! We had the option to take the elevator down or the “extremely steep and strenuous” 1.25 mile path into the natural mouth of the cave. Naturally, we chose the latter.

There is an amphitheater at the top of the trail where visitors can watch the giant colony of Mexican free-tailed bats leave each evening in search of food. Unfortunately, that spectacle ends in October. So, we didn’t see bats, but we certainly smelled the bats as we descended down the endless switchbacks. Bat guano everywhere!

See that dark hole in the bottom right? That’s where the bats fly out! As expected, it got darker and darker as we descended the switchbacks.

Fantastic natural limestone sculptures, called speleothems, lined the path the whole way down. We saw grottoes filled with stalactites and stalagmites and structures with names like The Boneyard, Witch’s Fingers, and Whale’s Mouth. The deeper we went, the damper and cooler it became until the ambient temperature was the usual 56 degrees. During the rare moments of silence we could hear the random dripping of water that has been building the cave formations over millions of years. Theatrical lighting throughout highlighted the features and provided just enough illumination to walk in the dark.

The formations you see here were formed by drops of water seeping through hundreds of feet of limestone. Every drop leaves a microscopic amount of limestone where it drips or lands. Over millions of years, this is the result.

Along the Big Room trail.

The walk down was amazing, but once we entered The Big Room, the enormity of the place was difficult to take in. The chamber is 255 feet high at the highest point, 4,000 feet long, and 625 feet wide. A 1.25 trail takes visitors around the perimeter of the cavern. The ceiling is covered in stalactites of every size and shape, all seemingly poised to fall on the tourists below (it would be a truly terrifying place to be in an earthquake). The floor features huge stalagmites slowly growing to meet the parent stalactites above. Though rare, crystal clear pools full of tiny crystals with surfaces like glass mirror the formations above. The cavern was overwhelming in its size and alien beauty.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here are some of the things we saw today.

All of the pools in the cavern are the result of water seeping through the ceiling. No water flows in either by spring or stream.

This formation is called the Chandelier. It’s impossible to tell in this photo, but the large stalactites looked to be 10-15 feet long.

One of the many grotto areas found in main cavern.

This formation is called The Three Giants.

We spent about four hours in the cave before taking the elevator out. Since we like to take in all the national parks have to offer, we decided to take the scenic driving loop. It was…a lot of grass and yucca plants and not much more. The handful of mule deer we saw were cute, though.

Tomorrow we are heading south to Big Bend National Park in Texas. We are looking forward to seeing more of the Lone Star State!