Location: Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, USA
Summary: Today we visited Carlsbad Caverns, heading down into the cool darkness beneath the desert heat. With limited time I followed the main route to the bottom of the cave, passing through huge chambers and incredible rock formations that made the visit well worth it.
We did not have very long at Carlsbad Caverns, but I still managed to make it all the way down to the bottom of the main cave and back up again. Outside it was blisteringly hot, the kind of heat that wraps around you like a heavy blanket, but at the bottom of the caverns the temperature dropped sharply and it felt like stepping into a natural refrigerator.
As I moved through the different chambers, the scale of the formations was astonishing. Giant stalagmites, delicate stalactites, and strange, otherworldly shapes rose and dripped and twisted in every direction. Some looked like frozen waterfalls, others like organ pipes, and some like creatures that might wake up if you stared too long. It is mind-boggling to imagine the early explorers navigating this place with nothing but lanterns and nerve, and somehow finding their way out again.
A bit of history
Much of what we know about the caverns today comes from Jim White, who first explored them as a young boy using a homemade wire ladder. He wandered through the darkness naming rooms and formations as he went, and many of those names have stuck. The Big Room, New Mexico Room, Kings Palace, Queens Chamber, Papoose Room and Green Lake Room are just some of the areas he named.
He also named many of the cave’s more prominent formations, such as the Totem Pole, Witch’s Finger, Giant Dome, Bottomless Pit, Fairyland, Iceberg Rock, Temple of the Sun and Rock of Ages. Until 1932, visitors to the cavern had to walk down a switchback ramp that took them 750 feet below the surface. The walk back up was tiring for many visitors, and in 1932 the National Park opened a large visitor centre building with two elevators that would take visitors to the caverns below.
Named areas within the caves
Many of the areas or formations have names, and the ones described below are just some of them.
Balloon Ballroom
Located in the ceiling above the main entrance hall, this small room was first accessed by tying a rope to a bunch of balloons and floating them up into the passage.
Bat Cave
A significant, unadorned rocky passage connected to the main entrance corridor. Most of the cave’s bat population lives in this portion, which was mined for bat guano in the early 20th century.
Bell Cord Room
Named for a long, narrow stalactite coming through a hole in the ceiling, resembling the rope coming through the roof of a belfry. This room is located at the end of the Left-Hand Tunnel.
Bifrost Room
Discovered in 1982, it is located in the ceiling above Lake of the Clouds. Its name refers to a Norse myth about a world in the sky that was accessed from Earth by a rainbow. The room was named because of its location above the Lake of the Clouds and its colourful oxide-stained formations.
Big Room or Hall of the Giants
The largest chamber in Carlsbad Caverns, with a floor space of 357,469 square feet.
Chocolate High
A maze of small passages totalling nearly a mile in combined length, discovered in 1993 above a mud-filled pit in the New Mexico Room known as Chocolate Drop.
Green Lake Room
The uppermost of the scenic rooms, named for a deep, malachite-coloured pool in the corner of the room.
Fun Fact
The Green Lake Room in Carlsbad Caverns was once used during the 1940s to test whether distant nuclear explosions could cause ripples in its still, malachite-coloured pool. Despite the experiments, no ripples were ever detected.
Guadalupe Room
Discovered by a park ranger in 1966, this is the second-largest room in Carlsbad Caverns. It is known for its dense collection of soda straw stalactites.
Hall of the White Giant
A large chamber containing a large, white stalagmite. Rangers regularly lead special wild-cave tours to this room.
Kings Palace
The first of four chambers in a wing known as the scenic rooms, named for a large castle-like formation in the centre of the room.
Lake of the Clouds
The lowest known point in the cave. It is located in a side passage off the Left-Hand Tunnel and is named for its large lake containing globular, cloud-like rock formations formed underwater when the lake level was much higher.
Left-Hand Tunnel
A long, straight passage marked by deep fissures in the floor. These fissures are not known to lead anywhere. The Left-Hand Tunnel leads to the Lake of the Clouds and the Bell Cord Room.
Mabel’s Room
A moderate-sized room located past the Talcum Passage in Lower Cave.
Mystery Room
A large, sloping room off the Queens Chamber, named for an unexplained noise heard only here. A small vertical passage at the far end connects it to Lower Cave.
New Mexico Room
Located adjacent to the Green Lake Room and accessed using a narrow corridor.
New Section
A section of fissures east of the White Giant formation that parallels the Bat Cave. Discoveries are still being made in this section.
Papoose Room
Located between the Kings Palace and the Queens Chamber.
Queens Chamber
Widely regarded as the cave’s most beautiful and scenic area. Jim White’s lantern went out in this chamber while he was exploring, and he was in the dark for over half an hour.
Spirit World
Located in the ceiling of the Big Room at its highest point, an area known as the Top of the Cross. This area is filled with white stalagmites that resemble angels.
Talcum Passage
A room located in Lower Cave where the floor is coated with gypsum dust.
The Rookery
One of the larger rooms in Lower Cave. A large number of cave pearls are found in this area.
Underground Lunchroom
Located in the Big Room at the head of the Left-Hand Tunnel. It contains a cafeteria built in the 1950s and is where the elevators from the visitor centre exit into the cave.
Final thoughts
Even with limited time, Carlsbad Caverns left a deep impression. It is a place that feels ancient and alive at the same time, a world carved drop by drop over millions of years. Walking through it, you cannot help but feel small, humbled and a little awestruck. If I return, I would like to explore more of the scenic rooms and maybe even join one of the wild-cave tours, but for now I am just glad I made it to the bottom and back and had a glimpse of this extraordinary underground world.
Add comment