Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Part Two: The Big Room

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Read Part One Here!

After an hour and a half of winding our way down an asphalt path full of geological wonders, we finally arrived at The Big Room and big it is, stretching almost 4000 feet long and over 650 feet wide. The size of the place is massive and quite honestly my eyes didn't know where to focus at first.

The path that meanders around the big room is a pretty easy stroll, complete with places to divert off into so as to study the various formations. Honestly, there is so much information available about the caverns, both historical, geological, and visual that I feel it could take multiple visits just to absorb it all.

We had one of the audio docent handheld devices that you can get before you descend into the caverns from the Park Service. When you see a number you just type it into the keys and you'll get a super National Geographic-like lecture on whatever the numbered feature is. It was like having our own tour guide.

Something that drew my notice right away was the placid little pools of water that stood in various places throughout the cavern. They had an almost other worldly stillness about them, which I suppose makes sense as there was no wind to toss the water about a bit. Occasionally a drip would launch itself off of an icicle-like stalactite and ripple one of the pools of water. It was such a mind grabbing sight. Of course it was then that I noticed all the penny signs.

Apparently people have been so conditioned to chuck change into pools that they feel the need to throw coins into the pools of the caverns, even though there are signs everywhere about how damaging the coins are to the fragile ecosystem. You can not miss the Do not throw coins into the pools signs and yet there was various coinage everywhere. Sigh.

That little bit of annoyance aside, I returned to my cavern viewing trance and meandered around The Big Room's loop. The place's slightly left in the washer too long sock smell tickled my scent receptors as I wandered from formation to formation letting my imagination run a bit wild. We spent at least an hour and a half down there, and I am pretty sure if it had just been my husband and I we would have spent at least an hour more, the place is that amazing!

After spending half a day in the caverns, it was time to ascend and eat some lunch! We wandered over to the line for the elevators, and after a couple of minutes found ourselves squished into one of the gleaming silver elevators. Faster than you can say "Wow my ears popped!" we were stumbling out into the main visitors center ready to buy some tourist detritus. I'm not gonna lie, I was sort of sad to leave the caverns. That space was just so magical, like being on another world. I really would love to wander through it with no other people around.

We all sauntered back to our truck and trailer and were soon hurtling up the road to our night's destination, Roswell, New Mexico, another otherworldly destination. There was mutual agreement in the truck that Carlsbad Caverns National Park is definitely a national treasure, and I for one plan on returning for a visit again some day in the near future.

Cavern Picture Overload Section!

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's spelunking and not a coin to be tossed into a cave pool iPhone.

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