Carlsbad, NM - Carlsbad Caverns NP (3/5 - 3/8/25)

On our way headed east, we stopped in Carlsbad to visit another National Park. Carlsbad Caverns is a gigantic cave system with many significant cave features. Here we stayed at the Carlsbad KOA Holiday.

If you decide to walk to the bottom of the cave (instead of the elevator) , there is a 1.25 mile trail that is almost all downhill for 75 stories of elevation decent.

The cave tour is along a paved walkway and is self-guided.

This was our third cave tour in just the last few weeks and this one was the best by far. Although you didn't get a personal tour guide loaded with interesting facts, the cave really did speak for itself with amazing natural sculptures around every corner.

Once you get close to the bottom, you have another 1.25 miles of trail to explore the lower cave and the Big Room.

Some of the distance of floor to ceilings in parts of the cave can reach hundreds of feet.

When it is time to end the tour, you don't have to walk back up and can take the elevator the 750 feet back to the top.

To check another box on the list of National Parks visited, we drove a little ways south to see Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This was our view of El Capitan through a dusty day. This park was mostly focused on hiking, but we didn't take a long hike in this day.

The dust storm really made our campground look like we were living on Mars. Luckily the next day we left the winds had died down and the skies cleared up. After here, we keep heading east to visit more family until we get to Frederick, MD to take off for our trip to Europe. Read my next post on how the Rhine River cruise and Scotland trip turned out.