Carlsbad Caverns

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In 1898, in the Guadalupe Mountains of Southeastern New Mexico, a cowboy named Jim White saw what he thought was smoke rising in the distance. When he went closer he found that the “smoke” was literally millions of bats coming from a large hole in the ground. White and other locals knew of the hole, but no one had explored it. Concluding from the number of bats he saw that this must be a huge cave, White returned with a lantern and a crude rope ladder and descended into the hole. He spent the next 30 years making thousands of exploratory descents into the cave, and trying to get people to believe his stories of the incredible wonders he had found. Finally, in 1924, an article with pictures appeared in the National Geographic magazine. This converted the skeptics, and the caverns became a national park in 1930.
The main attraction is the Big Room, a 8.2 acre chamber some 750 feet below ground, which contains thousands of colorful rock formations, water pools, “bottomless” pits, and side chambers. All of this has been dimly lit using indirect lighting strategically located behind rock formations to produce a wonderful, but very eerie, atmosphere.
You can reach the Big Room by elevator or through the natural cave entrance along a steep paved switchback path about a mile and half long. We took the path, but were very glad the elevator was available for the trip back to the top. Once down there, we took the self-guided tour around the floor of the Big Room, another mile and a half or so.
We were awed by the colorful and unusual rock formations. Because of the dim lighting, it is hard to capture the beauty of the caverns on film. We could only get good pictures when we were close enough for the flash to be effective. I hope the few pictures we have included here can give you some appreciation what is down there. It is really something worth seeing.

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Photos

The Hole
This is the natural entrance to the caverns.

Jan and a Stalagmite
Jan is the one on the right.

The Cave Man
This is a naturally-formed rock formation that you would swear had been carved by a sculptor.

Ladder
This is the remains of a wire ladder once used by explorers to access one of the deep caverns. Scary!

View from the Top
This is the view of the surrounding area seen from near the mouth of the cave.