Also, the entrance the cave if you want to walk the 1.25 miles (1 hour) down instead of taking the elevators, but apparently, the bats don't return here until late March/early April.

Amazing experience! Had to wait almost an hour for the bats to emerge but they are wild animals so be sure you have time to devote to staying. Rangers were highly knowledgeable and did a great presentation. They only thing that made us leave was the impending lighting storm that the rangers advised everyone to go. The bat flight was awe inspiring! The national park restricts ALL tech use during the flight so no video or pictures. It's amazing to see what nature does!

Was a very learning experience. Hearing the soft fluttering as the numbers of bats leaving the cave increased. Was nice, almost relaxing. There needs to be complete silence and natural darkness. My only suggestion would be, if you are bringing a small child that doesn't understand complete silence, you might want to skip this event.

It wasn't as spectacular as we were hoping (they're are thousands of them, but they're small and fast and you can't really get a good look at them) but we learned a lot from the ranger while waiting for the bats to emerge. You can't take photos of the bats but I did take a couple on the way to the amphitheater.

The ranger talk was outstanding. He really knew a lot about the cave and bats. He started 15 minutes early to challenge us to ask him questions about the cave he wouldn’t know, but he was very knowledgeable. When the bats came out it was a terrific sight. As it got darker it became harder to see them and having binoculars helped. We watched the bats for about 45 minutes until we couldn’t see them anymore, but they kept on coming as we could still see when looking through binoculars. The ranger said it can take 4 hours for them all to get out. What an amazing place. We sat very high up to better see the hole (as did most people), but I wonder if sitting lower would’ve been better as you could see more of them against the sky overhead. There was a pungent smell in the air afterwards. I asked the ranger about this and he said it was partly the bats, but mostly the cave ‘exhaling’ at the end of the day, with air coming out as the temperature outside dropped. Wow.

Mark Joop did a great job as the host. Answered questions about the flight and bats. Definitely work it into your schedule! Photography is not allowed during the bat show, so as not to spook the bats.

So so so fun. Every night you can see the bats fly. The park ranger who presented before the sunset flight was so funny but also kind and great answering all types of questions. If you are here to visit the Caverns, I recommend doing this the night before or night of your visit.

I definitely recommend this experience if you haven't before. This was my first time and I fell in love. I am more intrigued by bats since visiting this place. Pictures and video are absolutely prohibited when the flight happens. Please respect the rules and the rangers, don't visit if you want to be one of those. This is something to be enjoyed by all but those who respect nature and beauty. *this photo was taken before the the flight

Slaughter Canyon Cave Is Closed Due To Nature’s Destruction. Main entrance Is Gated / Locked. Signage Posted Reservations Required. CarlsBad Cavern’s NPS Park Ranger Stated Slaughter Cave ReOpen Unknown.

Awesome short hike with cool views, unfortunately you cannot enter the cave without a guide, which are unavailable at the time due to covid. Nonetheless a cool hike and worth the views. Moderately steep and a little less than a mile long.

Great hike. Moderate difficulty. About 1 mile and ~600 feet of elevation gain. I'd liken it to a goat path at places.

Kitchen supplied well. Meat was a bit too tough for me though. On the other hand the housing was very well put together, I enjoyed the skull lamp on the bed table (Very tasteful)

Beautiful vistas but bureaucratic hoops to jump through spoils the enjoyment.

There is a hike with a 500 foot elevation gain out in the desert before getting to the cave. The trail has loose rocks and gravel, which many people weren't expecting for a cave tour. Bring shoes with good grip. Also note that this isn't part of the main cavern, so if you take a tour here you drive from the visitor's center. The interior of the cave is darker is color than the main cavern which makes things a bit harder to see, especially with lighting by headlamps.

This was a wonderful adventure. The hike up, the tour in the cave and the hike down. All amazing. Thank you!

This park is a little different from others It's almost on the Mexican border and gets very hot and dry in the summer months. The park itself is pretty much the cave, that is what you pay for. The trails etc are free to use without payment, but they are kinda barren and dry. Cave tours seemed to end at 1:30pm so kinda early, online bookings didn't let us book the morning of even though there are spaces available. There is an elevator for the cave which goes to The Big Room (creative!), But the walk down is the best way. To walk it all, it's maybe 2 miles or so. It's a good hike. Hiking back up, a little further, maybe 3 miles. You can take elevator either direction. If the booking system was better, then it's worth 5 stars.

I was excited to come here AND was completely blow away about how much cooler it was in person! The cavern was absolutely massive! I wasn’t expecting it to be so big! Solid place to come hiking during the hot summer months. A nice cool 56ish degrees in the cavern. Would definitely visit again.

It was an ok experience. Biggest cave I have seen, but I have seen better formations in other caverns. (For great formations go to Sonora Caverns in Texas!) The park staff at the ticket counter seemed almost put out that we were visiting. No map or info given when we checked in for our tickets. Definitely a lack of signage in various places, including the general cavern entrance. We were here in November, can't imagine being here when it's crowded. Even with physical limitations it was doable, but slow. We were there for about two hours. The cafe at the cave bottom was closed, they didn't bother to explain that. People with flashlights definitely ruin the experience. The cafe at the visitor center was pretty sparse. So we headed down the hill to Whites City, but the cafe was closed.

If you like caves, this is amazing. The cave is huge! You have a choice of taking the elevator or the natural entrance, which is 1.25 miles. You can go back out either way, walking or taking the elevator. Do make reservations, they sell out for the day on many occasions. Allow at least 3 hours to see the cave, there are restrooms outside the cave and inside the cave.

This place is huge! Definitely worth the 2.5hour detour for us. Get there well before 2:15. Nice that they have $10 dog kennel. Nice rangers, nice view from top. Remember to reserve your time online. We spent a good 2 hours in the cave.

Great park. Definitely something everyone should see. Pretty indescribable. Don’t miss the above ground stuff too. Old guano trail is really nice. And try and go when the bats are there. Almost cooler than the cave. Try and get tickets for the ranger guided tours, super worthwhile and gets you to different rooms.

Second time visiting Carlsbad caverns. My wife and I were able to visit and experience caverns with few to no people. Was so easy to explore and really nice to have place to almost no one around. Visited during the week (Thursday). Saw some new things I missed the first time. Got to see bats out of the cave in the evening hours as well. Very cool experience. A must visit if your in the area. Planning another visit with some family members that are more intrigued about them.

Was a great experience! I was impressed by how deep, the size of the stalagmites and stalactites. Temperature was nice, around 55°. We completed the whole cavern in 1hr 20min without a guide. Be prepared to walk. You are allowed to bring only water.

It's located in a very secluded location. It's worth a drive no doubt. The cave was huge and took more than an hour to finish the whole thing. Bring a good quality camera or smartphone as it's worth keeping it as remembrance. Highly recommend it to anyone and the scenery creates so many images and cool imaginations.

Very organized visitor center. As soon as you enter in the entrance you see the desk service onto the right to buy tickets or appointments online check in options where they will find out your appointment and issue a ticket. Explore sometime about the history of the Park and walk straight for the natural trial or you can take an elevator directly to the big room in the cavern. I highly recommend to take the trial while coming back you can take the elevator. Make sure to book the appointment online, no appointment means less chance of getting in. $2 for the online appointment it’s a separate fee excluding the entrance fee per person.

Beautiful winding road leading up to the visitor center. Definitely recommend getting tickets in advance as most sell out days before. If you have to do a guided tour that's the way to go otherwise I recommend walking in through the natural entrance and riding the elevators back up. Have lunch at the picnic tables with a beautiful overlook of the valley below. The cavern itself is something you won't believe until you see it. Guadalupe mountain national Park is in the same mountain range and definitely worth a visit as well.

What an amazing experience!!! The caverns feel like some place from another world. These are grand and it takes about 90 minutes to tour. It also has a self guided hike trail if you don't get enough of the guided tour. Would definitely recommend!!!

This is such a unique and interesting place I cannot imagine being Jim White and going down do the different rooms 🤯 Yesterday they fully closed the cavern and no one could go down due to weather and today they didn't open until 10:00 and we still were not allowed to walk down the natural entrance. Even with that it was still really nice to go I haven't been to Carlsbad cavern in 10 years and it was really nice to go back and I hope to go back in the future too. They have a very nice gift shop as well. I love the information on placards all around the park I definitely recommend adding Carlsbad caverns to your travel list.

Worth the 8-hr drive! Amazing and fascinating and beautiful! We did have to wait one hour in line for tickets, even though we had a "reservation" at 11:30am. (Just be warned.) We walked down, spent more than 2 leisurely hours inside, and took the elevator up.

Grab a national park pass and go! Reserve online before going to make sure you don’t miss out, or go when all the kids are back in school. It will take about 3 hours if you take your time. Walk down. Elevator up. There is a cafe in the cave. Restrooms too.

Clean, comfortable place. Lots of history and information to take in about the caves and the area in general. You need to reserve you tickets in advance and buy them at the door... kind of an odd way to do it that made plans a little more difficult because we were traveling through at the time.

Absolutely a must see in New Mexico. Guided ticket sales almost instantly sell out. Self guided tour is a great backup, especially when your traveling to other sites. Very courteous Rangers and staff.

Without a doubt one of my favorites. What an experience to walk through these caves - the scale alone is breath-taking. I walked the entire route in the Big Room in about 1 1/2 hour. Not difficult. The lighting design is stunning! Highly recommended. Bring something warm!

We were here 25 years ago. Wanted to come back. Did the self tour again. Make sure you stop in the gift shop to get your audio tour hand set. Cost $5 per handset. Well worth it. We spent 3 1/2 hours in the cave

The coolest cave experience we have had! We have been to a lot of caves including Mammoth! For us, this was our favorite! The beauty and features of this case system are absolutely amazing! The Big difference with this cave system for us was that you could do a self-guided tour! Most cave systems were only guided tours. There is options to have a guided tour buy a ranger that bring you into additional cave systems. This is of course more money. It is $15 per adult unless you have park passes. The national park pass gets you into this cave system for free. We did not know about the audio guided devices you can rent from the bookstore. So we did this in about 2 hours. The kids really enjoyed! We definitely recommend taking the natural entrance down into the cave and then taking the elevator up. 😅. We learned our lesson.. It is very steep and a pretty strenuous walk down if you take that entrance. So be mindful. We did see a few people struggling and one needed rescuing. But the staff are always roaming and very helpful! The elevator takes you straight down 75 stories into the cave where you walk right into an area where you can have lunch down in the cave! They sell sandwiches chips and drinks. They also have a little gift shop where you can buy a postcards and send them in a blue box right from the cave! We thought that was cool! 10 out of 10 for experience!

What an experience! Don't take the elevator down, walk. Be sure to take a flashlight to use while your eyes become accustomed to the dark. Wear good shoes as you are walking downhill all the time. Wear what you wear for 55 degrees and out walking. Not really for little children as you use a handrail quite a bit of the time. No strollers or wheelchairs, too dangerous. If you have the opportunity, go!

I book time entry earlier from recreation app. Have my national park yearly pass, help me to save 30 min on line. Tours are already booked, can't find in app. Thinking might be available on that day. But not successful. Still I will say, caverns are beautiful and lot to explore. I walk till the end and take elevator for coming up. I walk near about 5miles.

Carlsbad Caverns National park was such a beautiful and unique experience. The visitor center has lot of interesting exhibits, gift shop and a theater. It also has a restaurant. It is very kid friendly and the rangers an are super nice and helpful. Kids can get the junior ranger batch and get their national park passport stamped. This is the third noteworthy cave we visited this year after Mammoth Cave National park, Kentucky and Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho This one definitely is the most magnificent of all ! The descent was 700 feet (size of a 75 storied building) which takes you to a huge underground chamber - Big room We saw the Stalactites and stalagmites in all its glory. Some looked like popcorns, some looked like drapes, some like fairyland , some looked like a temple and what not… The hike was about 3.5 miles through the dark steep slope but we did good and was totally worth it. Also hats off the National Parks Service, USA for maintaining a place like this 👏👏

Beautiful Visitor Center.. Long wait today due to a holiday week- end. You do need reservations before arriving. Rangers and Volunteers are all very pleasant and informative. Gift shops are fun. The drive into the park is awesome. Thank you for a great visit.

Had a great time here. It's about 800 feet below the ground. We were the first ones down at 8:30 am. About 1.5 mile walk around down there. You could take the hike down instead of the elevator it's about another mile hike down. If you have a wheelchair you wont be able to go the whole distance... They have a no wheelchair access part. It's not that chilly down there but maybe a light sweater would be handy if you get cold easily.

Nice clean picnic area with multiple picnic tables with barbeque stands and restrooms. No fishing in the spring but cool place to picnic. Plenty of room to set up games or volleyball net.

This is a nice place to stop for a picnic. The short walk to the spring was uneventful.

VERY interesting off-the-road place to visit and do some birding!

No shade structures over the tables and the trees are insufficient. The pond seen in some pictures is further up the road and there are no tables there. It is the collection basin to pump water up to the Carlsbad Caverns NP visitors' center. It is pretty, but no fishing or anything else there.

This was a quiet and shaded location for lunch! While we were hear saw some beautiful birds. There was a short walk down a dirt road that lead to the springs. The springs were absolutely gorgeous! Would absolutely stop by again!

Well well worth it ! Spring water but well worth hoyhoyhoy. Beautiful walk up spring 200 yards past the main parking area. Beautiful big trees. Natural mint growing. Fish swimming around. Lots of sitting areas. Clean Pit toilets. The spring hosts water for all of Carlsbad so that was interesting and we even got to crack and a few fresh pecans. A good surprise.

Beautiful and historic spot for a picnic. Tons of picnic tables surrounded by giant old cottonwood trees. Cool and breezy compared to the surrounding desert. Very nice vault toilets and plenty of trash receptacles. You can walk down the road a bit to see the actual spring and old Civilian Conservation Corps building. Plenty of informational signage all around.

Very beautiful- a welcome refuge from the dry range surrounding it and from the Permian Basin oilfield traffic. Excellent bird-watching (Blue Mockingbird, wow!) and a good picnic spot.

Don't miss this picnic area. The bird watching is excellent, the views most fine and the grounds clean and well kept. Day use only. You can camp on the nearby BLM land.

Really nice little picnic area!

great spot. lot's of wild turkey in area. spring is very pretty draw's lots of wildlife for the water.

Verdant respite from intensity of surrounding desert. Far enough off asphalt to accommodate a pause of quiet enjoyment. Great place for a cooler borne lunch.