Carlsbad Caverns

Date: 03-24-2021

Just up the road from Guadalupe is the Carlsbad Caverns NP.  Well-known for their size and mineral formations, these are great caves.

Here is the entrance originally discovered by locals. In the summer millions of bats exit the cave at sundown, forming a cloud on the horizon.  It was these bats the first attracted Europeans to the site.  During the day, birds take the place of bats swarming the entrance. It's about 75ft wide here, and not much compared to the inner chambers.

 

 

 

 

Here we are mostly inside the entrance hall.  The exterior portal appears quite small already, and this room isn’t large by Carlsbad standards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look closely at the photo below, you might spot the silhouette of a person near  the base of the column, and to the left.  The size of these formations makes them impossible to truly appreciate on a screen.

 

 

The column above can be seen in the center of this photo.  This series of chambers is over 1200ft across.  The ceiling is over 600ft above the floor in many places.  You could easily put a full-sized football stadium in here with room to spare.

 

 

This giant disk is as long as a city bus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its hard to get a sense of scale here, but the stalagmite on the right below is over 70 feet tall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In many areas we found ourselves walking under rock falls.  Individual boulders were larger than a typical house, and jumbled upon each other like so much gravel in a bucket.

 

 

“Popcorn” formations.