Carlsbad Caverns National Park

I have such an affinity towards caves with no idea where it comes from.  These caves here definitely won’t be the last time I’ll be gushing about getting to explore underground.

As a National Park, the experience here was different than I was used to. As is typical, my first task was to go talk to a ranger and learn about the must see things during my visit.  The ranger I talked to didn’t seem to like that I didn’t plan ahead and sort of lectured that I was ‘lucky’ that they weren’t sold out of tickets.  Also when I asked about hiking trails his response was “I guess you could go hiking but the cave is the main attraction”.   Really an out of character interaction for me.

Now to the caves.  I completely recommend taking the walking trail down.  Sure there is an elevator you can take to get to the main attraction, but the natural entrance really gives you perspective to how deep underground you get to go.  I got to the entrance early enough that the area was basically empty and I felt like I was descending into nothingness.

While the caves can be completely explored in a day, its an entirely unique experience that I would go do again in a heartbeat.