Carlsbad Caverns National Park is famous for the Carlsbad cavern. While Lava Beds National Monument is famous for its labyrinth of caves, Carlsbad is famous primarily for a single huge cave. There are several small caves around that require permits and specialized gear to visit.
I would highly recommend coming here early in the morning. You need to book a reservation in advance. The Carlsbad cave is huge. And while some people take the elevator, I recommend going down as well as up via the hike to have the fullest experience. It takes about 45 mins to hike up/down. And then there is a big room to explore at the bottom. There are ~50 marked stops to the bottom. Expect to spend about 3-4 hours in the cave.
The initial part of the cave smells pretty heavily of bat poop. In fact, the bat poop, a fertilizer, was mined out of the cave in the 1930s before artificial fertilizers became mainstream.
After the Carlsbad cavern, I decided to check out the Slaughter Canyon cave hike. The cave is allowed on a ranger-guided tour and that’s closed due to COVID-19. But the 20-mins intense hike is worth the views.
