9. The Carlsbad Caverns
If I can describe the caverns only in one word, it would be MASSIVE. I’ve been in dozens of caves around the world and there are many caves around the place I was growing up. But nothing in this scale. It would be like comparing a home aquarium to Pacific Ocean. You could hide an aircraft carrier in some those rooms (or whatever they are called).
Chatting with the park ranger there, he told me this is one of the busiest National Parks in the US with 400,000 visitors annually. Entry fee is expensive, though. You have to pay $1! That’s right ONE dollar. And that’s not even the fee it is only a reservation for specific time slot. You’ve got as lot of bang for your buck here.
The Carlsbad Caverns are located about 40 km SW of Carlsbad and that is situated 400 km SE of Albuquerque. There is a lot of interesting info regarding the caverns. You can do further reading in Wiki. The caverns are the largest in the US and one of the largest in the world. The lowest part of the caverns is 750’ bellow the ground. You can walk down and up or use the elevator. Most people walk down and take a ride up. That’s what I did. The trail in the caverns is over 2 km long. Temperature inside is steady 13˚C year around. VERY nice considering it was 39˚ outside when I got up again.
It took me about 2,5 hrs to do the tour. I could spend more time there but I don’t have an air conditioning on my bike and I still have to get back to my hotel. I took hundreds of pic and they will be in the photo section (not all of them 🤣)