We spent the day at Carlsbad Caverns. We got a chance to do a self guided tour of the caverns. It was fun to go at our own pace and choose the places of interest to us.
We entered the cavern at the main entrance. It is a huge opening with a very steep down hill climb.
Since we did not have a guide, we do not have any history or stories about the caverns. We do have lots of photos however. Carlsbad Caverns are filled with a wide variety of structures and separate areas. In this set, you can see that the descent continues inside the cavern. There are pools of water in several places.
The stalactites and stalagmites vary from thin fragile sticks to massive structures. There is a surprising amount of color in the cavern.
There are a few large rooms in the caverns. In this particular area, there are smooth surfaced columns, columns with miniature columns on them, and some that look like they were built in layers. One of the most interesting things we found were places that were smooth surfaces like the bottom of a pool. They had holes where the water appeared to have drained. Whatever their origin, they had a unique appearance.
In another area, we saw lots of fine stalactites and delicate stalagmites that were lit by white and colored lights to give them a different appearance.
Some sections of the cavern appeared to be the inspiration for many monsters, particularly from Star Wars – misshapened creatures with thin sharp teeth, unusual people standing on the floor, massive creatures with and without teeth. The array of these monsters was surprising. Sometimes we felt surrounded.
There were some places where we saw a structure that was called bacon in a different cave. In Carlsbad, the bacon was a brown shade which added to the illusion of the name. We also saw two deep holes. One had a wooden ladder that led into the hole. In another place, we saw rock toadstools. We saw a small creek running through the cavern as well.
Here are few of the other sights we saw on our tour of Carlsbad Caverns.
From above ground, Carlsbad Caverns looks like any other desert area.
Here is a panoramic view of the area around Carlsbad Caverns.
and this is a 360 degree view of the same area.
When we were done at Carlsbad Caverns, we headed toward Alamagordo New Mexico.
We enjoyed our day underground.