Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe National Parks

Trip Details:

Where: Carlsbad National Park and Guadalupe National Parks

Campsite: Carlsbad Caverns RV Park (spot 14) 

Length: 3 days

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Travel Day - Rested, grocery shopped and fixed our converter problem on the camper

Day 2: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Day 3: Guadalupe National Park

Carlsbad Cavern’s Highlights:

Paige: Liked seeing the popcorn formations on the cave floors!

Charlotte:  Looking at the draperies of the cave ceiling!

Mary: Walking down the Natural Entrance ascending 750 feet into the cave!

Aaron: Enjoyed leaning over the railing to see the lower cave and realizing that there’s a second cave system under us!

Guadalupe Mountains Highlights:

Paige: Loved climbing over the boulders!

Charlotte: Eating prickly pear gummy bears and climbing up the steep natural stairs!

Adults: The views and rock scampering on the boulders!

When we arrived at the campsite, our spots were too close to the highway. They didn’t accommodate our original request to be by our friend’s camper, but then moved closer together… still by the highway. Also, the indoor pool was closed, so that was a bummer. But it has 3 dog parks that Cooper enjoyed! This is the best rated RV park in Carlsbad that we found, we were a little spoiled at Maverick RV Resort, but it will work for our time here to visit two national parks. 

The next morning we got up early, packed our lunch and drove 30 minutes to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We had to get a timed-entry pass to be able to have a self-guided tour and our entry was between 9:30 and 10:30am. Unfortunately with all the layoffs the national parks are experiencing, Carlsbad Caverns announced that they don’t have the manpower to provide any ranger-led guided tours for the time being and they are limiting their hours. If they bring them back, consider grabbing some. They look like a fun time to go into other parts of the cave not open to the self-guided hikers. 

This was such a cool experience. We got to walk down to the Natural Entrance and it took about an hour to get through the switchbacks as we descended into the cave. We went in March, so we didn’t see any bats. The bats visit and the park has a bat viewing every night from May through October. However, I heard from the ranger that the best bat viewing in October since the bat colony is larger after the babies are born and able to fly, along with the nicer weather for the bats! 

The cave was cool, literally and figuratively. It was about 55 degrees and was the largest cave we’ve been in. The other national cave we visited, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, had a large dome the size of a football field. This cave was larger, but not a dome room. 

After we finally made it down there, we decided to take the elevator back up to eat lunch, then took the elevator again to start the second cave hike into the Big Room.  

After we spent another 2 hours spelunking the cave, we came back up to a big surprise. We were in the middle of a dust storm. Luckily for me, Aaron grew up in Texas and had been in them before, but for me, this was new. At one point at our drive home, we had to pull off since we couldn’t see 3 feet in front of us. It was the wildest thing. Needless to say, the rest of the day we spent in the camper playing games and protecting ourselves from the wind! 

Our next day we spent visiting Guadalupe Mountains National Park. After our obligatory sign picture, we got our junior ranger booklets and hit the Devil’s Hall Trail. This trailhead was about 5 miles round trip and was such a unique experience. This was our first time to spend a majority of the trial rock scampering.  

I’m glad we found another bloggers notes about this hike, letting us know that there is a “fake” Devils Hall, where there is a small pool of water, a natural steep staircase along with a hall wall. 

We went further on to see the actual Devil’s Hall, and IMO, the “fake” one was less windy for enjoying lunch and enjoying the views! 

The Gurley’s decided after 3 hours of hiking boulders on that trail, we were ready to go home and rest our feet. The Kuhlman’s were rockstars and went on a second hike though Spring Trail hike. It was a 2.4 mile round trip hike and showed beautiful views of the side of the Guadalupe Mountain range. Another gold star goes to them for most steps that day - over 17,000! 

Until next time….

Mary