Carlsbad Caverns Natural Entrance Tour, New Mexico, United States

5SS_Forever 5:00 PM Jun 27, 2022

Great Experience - Did learn a couple of things for next time
This trip was with my kids and grandkids 13 total. You have to get your time slot at recration.gov which is $1.00 a person to hold. They give you an hour window to arrive with no restriction on time to leave. We did the early slot 8:30 to 9:30am. After taking time at the entrance sign for some family photos we arrived at the main building to check in an purchase tickets. We have purchased the National Park Pass which got most of us in free and our son who is a veteran was able to get a free National Park Pass on site which got the rest of us in Free. Walking thru the Natural entrance is a must at least once, Light jackets and good shoes are a must. It can be a steady decline for long periods and wet. So watch your footing and use your hiking knowledge of heal toe. It took us about hour an 20 mins to get to the The big room. By the time we reached this point we had some hungry kiddos. As they say no food expect water in cavern I felt for them. No problem snack bar at this point with restrooms. As we had taken the early slot it was not open yet. Also did not know the big room is a loop on its own and takes another 1 to 2 hours to do it all. Who would not want to do this after driving so far to come here?? So we got the kids to power thru. Next time I will pack granola bars or quick snack for when we reach this point and they can re-charge. Or get my time slot to line up with snack bar hours (but this could be a more crowded time). Also if you can't walk that far you can take the elevator down from the main building and just do this area. Note if in a wheel chair or have trouble walking you won't be able to do the full loop in the big room as there are some narrow walk ways in one section. Also when we were there the fires had most of the outer roads closed off. Hoping to return one day and explore more. It is beautiful here. Bat Viewing. We did not do this the day we toured the cave as due to rain showers the ranger said they don't typically come out and had not the last two days. So we waited a day and returned. There is no charge for this and the outside bathrooms at the main building are open to use. When we arrived it had been raining but stopped before dusk and we got a great show. It was great and the kids loved it.

5tleeEvans 5:00 PM May 30, 2022

Great NP
Went over Memorial Day to visit NP in this area of the country. Stopped first at the Carlsbad Caverns. Once entering the park entrance it is a 7 mile drive to the visitor center where you will get checked in for your cave ticket. Make sure you go on line a receiver a day and time you want to go, as to enter in the cave you must have a reservation. to just drive up the the top and walk around you do not. However since they are in a drought, all the trails are closed, even the 9 mile driving loop. We opted to do the natural entrance walk down to the high room. the walk down can be slippery, so were good shoes and take a light jacket as it is cool in the cave. If you have any type of breathing or heart conditions I would recommend to ride the elevator down. But by walking down you will see a lot of interesting formations that are not in the big room. Also stop by the gift shop and pay the $5.00 for the hand held device that you can listen to at designated stops along the walking path to here interesting facts. The cave is awesome, take about 2 hours to stop and look at the formations and read the signs. We went trice the time were were there, two different days, and the second time we rode the elevators down and walked out. the walk out is not that hard, but agin if any respiratory, heart of joint problems, take the elevator back up. They did have the small nature trail open that is at the end of the parkng lot. Saw a haven