To the Bat Cave

National Park #29 (of 59)

Months ago, I asked our cave tour planner to decide which one we should do during our visit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. No surprise that every tour in which M was interested had "strenuous" in the description or involved crawling and/or climbing! Unfortunately, none were available during the time that we would be here. So I made reservations online for the 11:00AM King's Palace Tour, the only one we could do.

However, M would still get his strenuous hike today! The elevators into the cave have been inoperable for the past several months, so the only way in (and out!) of the cave was to hike the Natural Entrance trail -- a mere 750-foot change in elevation within the distance of a mile!

We started our descent a little after 9:00AM to give us enough time to reach the meeting area for the start of the tour...

I'm so disappointed that we won't get to see the famous Brazilian free-tailed bats exit the cave at twilight because they haven't migrated back north yet. We will have to visit again during the summer someday!

The opening straight ahead is the Bat Cave, where the bats roost

Devil's Spring

These pictures do not do justice to the spectacular formations we saw, as well as the enormity of the cave...

We made it to the underground rest area with plenty of time to spare before our tour started. Because we weren't permitted to bring any food with us into the cave, we purchased some snacks and snarfed them down because we were hungry!  

The ranger took our tour through four chambers...

King's Palace

Papoose Room

Queen's Drapery in the Queen's Chamber

Green Lake Room - does that look 8 feet deep to you?

Afterwards, we took the self-guided trail through the Big Room. And just how *big* is the Big Room? According to the NPS website, it is about 8.2 acres in size (which would fit roughly 6.2 football fields) and is the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America!  

Hall of Giants

Even though Mammoth Cave is larger/longer, I thought that the formations here at Carlsbad Caverns were much more impressive! However, I will have to subtract points off its final score because the elevators were not working. The boys decided to abandon us and hike all the way out without stopping. And because they are rotten children, they timed how much longer it took R and me to make it back to the top. Only *huff* 30 minutes *puff* extra! *gasp-wheeze*

Starving and exhausted, we ate a late lunch from the cafeteria in the main building, bought some souvenirs from the gift shop, and then headed back to our hotel room in Carlsbad. We topped off the day with a tasty dinner at a local restaurant...

Love the name of this place!
Country fried steak (left), pork medallions and homemade bread