Carlsbad Caverns National Park Visitor Center, New Mexico, United States

5Gary M 5:00 PM Jan 1, 2023

A very special place and should be on your "must-see" list!
We visited Carlsbad Caverns on January 2, 2023 and had a wonderful visit. Ranger Kevin and Ranger Nick were fabulous and really made the visit even more special. We reserved tickets for the Kings Palace tour which we highly recommend. Ranger Nick narrated the journey and interacted with our 20 person group in a very special way. A natural tour guide with deep knowledge! We enjoyed a quick lunch in the cafeteria which was less crowded, more tasty and even less expensive than we expected! After lunch we did the natural park entrance walk down to the Big Room which was quite an amazing walk...you can walk via the natural entrance going up, down or both! We walked down and took the elevator up and were very happy with our decision! It is both steeper and longer than expected! Gift shop has a wide assortments of items but they are not shy about charging for their merchandise. It seemed more expensive than most of the NPS gift shops we've browsed. We stayed in our RV in the town of Carlsbad which was about a 25-30 minute drive to the Cave and visitors center. You an stay much closer in White City which has an RV Park, a few small trinket shops, restaurant, motel and a gas station. Carlsbad has more restaurants and shopping along with lots of modular housing developments, trailers and campgrounds which seem to cater more to transient oil field workers than tourists. Most of the hiking trails at Carlsbad are currently closed due to flood damage which considering it was cold, raw and very, very windy didn't matter much to us this visit. All in all a very special place and should be on your "must-see" list!

5Minder53 5:00 PM Sep 7, 2022

Caverns were awesome!
Prior to visiting the Carlsbad Caverns, I made online reservations which cost $2 each). As it turned out, it really wasn't needed. On the day we went (Thursday), there was hardly a crowd. Both hubby and I got in for free because of our National Parks military pass. Normally, entrance fee is around $15. To go on the tour, you can either walk down to the cavern or take the elevator. We went with the elevator. We opted for the self-guided tour. I'm glad too because we could take our time looking at all of the wonderous parts of the cavern. Let me tell you, it's huge. Take lots of pictures. It took us about 1.5 hours to go through it. They say it's 56 degrees, so I wore my coat. You can also take guided tours which cost money. After we did the tour, we watched two movies about the caverns. There are also a variety of pictures to read about the caverns in the lobby area. The gift shop is very nice with a variety of items you can buy. Attached to the gift shop is a somewhat expensive cafeteria. We were unable to do the 9-mile scenic drive because it was blocked off. We came back at 6:45 p.m. to listen to the ranger in the bat amphitheater and to watch the bats come out of the cave. The ranger did an excellent job. You can leave the park and then come back. The bat show is free. Overall, it was a great day to visit.