Why Carlsbad Caverns is special
Carlsbad Caverns in the USA is gargantuan – so far about 50 kilometers (30 miles) of its caves have been explored. An estimated 500 kilometers (300 miles) have yet to see man or light.
It has colossal stalactites, stalagmites and other limestone formations buried deeper in the earth than the Eiffel Tower is high.
Carlsbad Caverns is in the middle of nowhere in a desert-mountain region of New Mexico in the southwestern USA, yet it draws visitors from around the world.

Cave-seeing options
You can take a self-guided or ranger-led tour down safe and easy subterranean sightseeing trails. Prefer not to walk a thousand feet down into the Carlsbad Caverns innards? You can board a quick-descending elevator. Whatever you do, bring a jacket or sweater - the cave temperature is a cool 13C (56F) throughout the year.

Big Room
The deep down Big Room is the most popular attraction of Carlsbad Caverns. Its ceiling is as high as a 20 story building and the floor area is larger than a dozen football fields. Strategically positioned hidden flood lights give this chamber an eerie, other world appearance.

Nature’s bat show
Visitors who stay until dusk at Carlsbad Caverns enjoy an awesome treat. They get to see hundreds of thousands of nocturnal bats swarming out of the cave openings to feed on insects. This stunning sight occurs only during warm weather months (the bats winter in Mexico).

What leading travel books say about Carlsbad Caverns
The fantastic and grotesque formations of Carlsbad Caverns fascinate visitors.
USA
Frommer's

Carlsbad Caverns is an incomparable realm of gigantic subterranean chambers.
America's National
Parks
Fodor's