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Carlsbad Caverns New Mexico

Carlsbad Caverns New Mexico cave vacation pictures. Carlsbad Caverns is absolutely unique, incredible national park of 23+ miles of underground caves, many literally thousands of feet below the surface of the Earth…and you can walk it all. 56 degree continuous temperature means a jacket for some. Caves are the size of a football field, formations 100 feet high, and each evening hundreds of people sit in a giant amphitheater and watch 600,000 Mexican Free Tailed bats fly out of the mouth of the cave and off into the sky. Each bat eats over 300 insects an hour each, flies up to 23 miles away, and returns each morning in a second swarm to enter the cave. You can watch this also if you awaken early enough.

picture of ladder used to get into carlsbad cave many years ago

For those of you who think that everything has already been discovered on this Earth and there is nothing new to find: note - These caverns were discovered and brought to the worlds attention by a 16 year old boy who refused to ignore the "black cloud" he saw every evening. This same black cloud the Indians had seen and stayed away from. This same black cloud hundreds of people throughout the region had stayed away from due to the devastatingly remote, deadly, high desert conditions. This same cloud that was finally discovered to be over 6 million bats. When they finally began mining the cave for "guano", bat manure, to be used for fertilizer, they found it 40 feet deep.

picture of inside cave in carlsbad

Above: Picture taken while walking down into cave looking out. This is the same area where the bats fly out from.

picture of bat cave theatre carlsbad caverns

Above: Picture of the family standing in the stadium area where many people sit and wait quietly for the bats to exit the cave. You do not smell guano while in the cave nor do you see piles of it because the bats are in a totally different area of the cave. When you walk down into the opening the walkway takes you to the right and the bats are located to the left.

picture of bats in carlsbad new mexico

Above: Picture of the bats quickly leaving the cave for the night. If you are an early riser, there is nothing stopping you from coming back to watch them re-enter the cave where they will sleep during the day light hours.

picture of josh, jason and ben inside carlsbad caverns in new mexico

Above: Picture of Josh, Jason and Ben standing inside the cave in front of a giant stalagmite.

picture of draperies formation inside carlsbad caverns new mexico

Above: Picture taken of Draperies. This is one of many cave formations. It is called draperies because of the soft folds.

These caves were a lot of fun walking through; great escape from the heat. The bats coming out of their cave in the evening was spectacular. The part of the cave where you tour and the part where the bats live are separate. We didn't see any bats other than when they leave the cave at night. Don't miss Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico.

Travel info - Map location of Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico - Carlsbad Caverns.

 

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