See 63

(3/63)

Friday– 2/20/26

Once again, an early start and a long drive ahead of us. Erica and I left AJ to torment Nonnie and Pop, as only a nearly two year old can, over the next three days so we could be productive and knock out two parks in one go. Starting with Carlsbad, we set off across the long west Texas drive. Putting us into Carlsbad in the early afternoon, we stopped by Guadalupe Brewing Co. to have lunch. Erica grabbed a hatch green chile chicken pizza, and I a Reuben (to be continued…).

Carlsbad itself sits within the Chihuahuan Desert. Being North America’s largest desert starts to make sense when you consider this is the same desert that encompasses Big Bend National Park, and add to it that over 90% of its 250,000 square miles is located in Mexico. Regardless, it was almost comforting in a strange way to see the same views as what we saw in Big Bend as we drove to the Caverns. The desert hills rose to desert foothills, speckled with the familiar sotol and brush we’ve seen before.

Turning off the highway and entering the park proper brought us to the lands where the Native American’s long since lived through. Pictographs among the windswept cliff sides, pocked with alcoves for the various desert avians to nest in slid by as we meandered our way to the tops of the mountains. It was a particularly windy day, and as we parked the car the dust had swept up and clouded the vista. We stood on a small overlook pointed towards Guadalupe Mountains National Park, noting that would take us one last foray into the Chihuahuan.

The no-fuss visitors center granted our tickets and provided a small introduction to the caverns and its history. Over 100 years since the caverns have accepted visitors showcases our transformation in nature preservation. When we used to provide visitors with smoke breaks and fried chicken in an underground restaurant, we also let visitors roam free – touching, breaking, and dooming cave formations to deterioration with no real preventatives. Eventually, with intent of keeping visitors on rails, we paved paths to help protect the caverns, with the unfortunate lack of knowledge that petroleum based tar in the pavement was doing just as much harm.

With the intro complete, we step into an elevator expecting a 750ft descent into the caverns. Noticing a small warning plate on the side cautioning radon exposure, and recognizing Erica being 7 months pregnant, I perked up and asked about the intent. News to me as a Texan, but those with basements actually have a slight concern about the naturally occurring radon exposure with being underground. No real concern, as long as you’re not exposed for days at a time. Definitely one of those things that looks and sounds much more scary than I guess it actually is.

Once we stepped off the elevator we were…. free to do what we wanted. The entire cavern is roughly cross shaped, with a few notable features such as the “Bottomless Pit” and the “Top of the Cross”. We set off in the direction that allowed us to make a large loop around the caves.

The caverns themselves ran longways, and nothing really brought us into any form of tight space. The rooms themselves were large, and filled to the brim with formations. Without a tripod, and low light conditions, my attempts at photos were just really not turning out. To be expected, I suppose.

The ceiling was draped in innumerable stalactites, a real natural popcorn ceiling. However, within the large rooms stood three central pillars, easily 15ft thick. All along the floor of the cavern ran small streams, where the floor had been carved out, or maybe more accurately, grown over. If you filled the cavern with water, I think most would reasonably confuse the caverns with a reef. Which, actually, is how the caverns originally had formed.

Making our way around the bend to the “Bottomless Pit” brought a slight disappointment. The “Bottomless Pit” was not very bottomless, nor was it close. About a 90ft drop to the bottom, filled with dust and cave debris, it’s hard to see the inspiration behind the name. Moving on brought us past several formations lit with halogen lights with other spectacle names and formations. Unfortunately, most formations had some form of breakage or vandalism that reflected the less than respected past this cavern had been subjected to in its past.

Wrapping around larger formations brought us to the “Top of the Cross”. Carved stone pews and small pulpits wrapped across two sides, forming a sort of V central to the caverns. Standing between the two allows for a long sight line down the eastern, western, and southern caverns, highlighting the crossroads of the millennia old reefs. I think this was my favorite part of the caverns, as any of the notable formations were within eyesight, all from one location. It really felt like the soul of the caverns. Just maybe a shame it was surrounded by so much human creation.

Walking back to the elevators brought us to some of the larger draperies. It was interesting to me that half the cave was heavy on floor formations and stalactites, but the other half was draperies and large columns. I wonder if the formations of the hills above ground influence the way water filters into the caverns.

Erica and I discussed leaving the caverns through the natural entrance. It sounded difficult, and her progression into pregnancy would have made it a real challenge, but the decision was made for us. As we neared the path, a ranger was setting up cones with a keep out sign, too close to park closing to let more visitors start their ascent. Not a real issue, we didn’t think we would get too far along it anyways.

We left the caverns by means of a quick hop through the elevator once more, this time packed tight with other visitors, and of course exiting through the gift shop.

Onward to Alamogordo.