Winter 2022: Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks

Carlsbad, New Mexico

While we were disappointed we had to leave Minnesota a few days early for our winter travels in order to outrun the cold front, we were very happy to spend those extra few days in Palo Duro Canyon State Park and the Amarillo area.  About five hours southeast of Palo Duro, we set up at the Carlsbad RV Park, on the south edge of town.  This was our home base for the next three days. 

Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Our first excursion was about 16 minutes from the RV park, Carlsbad Caverns, which I was not really looking forward to given that I am slightly claustrophobic.  Regardless, I was not going to let my irrational fears get in the way of our exploration.  I will add that there's at least one sign in the cave that reads "another large collapse is unlikely".  Not "extremely unlikely", just "unlikely".

We have just a few photos of the sign (of course) and the entrance.  Tim got a few decent photos with his iPhone, and I tried and tried and tried to get decent photos with my Nikon but I had two things working against me.  First, taking decent photos in a cave takes a lot of patience and a lot more expertise than I have.  Second, I really needed to get out of the cave as soon as I could - I think we broke some kind of record for speed.  We did go through the entire Big Room, so the entire two mile walk/hike took about 90 minutes.  That's about 89 more minutes that I would prefer.

With that said, how the cave was formed, the geology and the story of how the cave was discovered is quite interesting.  Oh and there is a nightly outflight of bats from the cave at about 5pm (they exit at the amphitheater at the natural entrance), however the bats were south for the winter, so didn't see that.

While we walked all the way down, we did take the elevator back up, where I felt completely safe.  That's because a group of about 20 young people were training to be members of the cave search and rescue teams rode up with us (see Tim's pic below).  One young man said, "Relax, if anything happens, we're the guys that will save you".  That put me right at ease.  That and the fact that the elevator ride is about 2 minutes long.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Our next adventure in the area was to Guadalupe Mountain National Park, about 45 minutes to the south of Carlsbad.  GMNP is actually in Texas, and quite the contrast from Carlsbad Caverns as far as National Parks go.  Carlsbad had over 500,000 visitors in 2017, their highest annual count to date (very interesting article on how those numbers are calculated), while GMNP had 225,000 visitors that same year.  So they are not vastly different in their visitor numbers, but the fees ($15 per person at Carlsbad Caverns, no fee at GMNP), staffing (we saw at least 15 staff members at Carlsbad and one dude at GMNP) and shopping options (two stores at Carlsbad as well as a dining area, one small store, no food at GMNP) are vastly different.  GMNP had two different signs - one at the entrance with a very unique look, and one out on the highway, with that standard NP format.

Tim selected the Devil's Hall trail for our day in the Guadalupe Mountains, a 3.8 mile out and back trek.  The first half is along a fairly easy portion along the edge of a mountain, with only a few challenging areas to navigate.  The second half is along a "wash" consisting of all boulders.  Yep, all rocks, some small, some as large as a car.   The turn around point is a fairly steep climb up a set of rocky steps, with the hall back in a canyon.  While I conquered my fears with the cave, I was not ready to make that climb and navigate the eventual descent.  Tim did and you can see video of the entire hike here.  If we're ever there again, I would challenge ourselves to complete the Guadalupe Peak hike, where you climb to the "Top of Texas".  At least it's above ground.

Here's a few good photos from our hike.

 

And finally, while we were in Carlsbad we enjoyed Guadalupe Mountains Brewing Company and Milton's Brewing.  Our time in the area was enjoyable, and the weather completely lovely for mid-January!

Guadalupe Mountains as seen from the Carlsbad Caverns NP parking lot

Up next for us during our Winter 2022 travel:  Alamogordo, NM.

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Have you been to Carlsbad Caverns?  Did you venture to Guadalupe Mountain National park?  Leave your comments below!  Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.