CARLSBAD CAVERNS

This place is pretty amazing!! We spent over 2 hours in just one section...The Big Room...which is 8.2 acres, 1800 ft. long and 250 wide. The loop around the Big Room is 1 mile. This is all after you take an elevator down 900 feet!! And, dark! The very definition of the word!

The cavern was formed 250-280 million years ago from limestone. And the limestone is home to fossils of ocean plants and animals. This area of New Mexico area once was a coastline like found today along the Florida Keys. It is just awesome! Hard to convey the scope or grandeur of it all. Considering the absolute black, some of these photos are difficult to see. We did not get to the actual "Natural Opening" of the cavern and have put the site on our visit again list. All the different formations have fanciful names...below for instance is "Tiger's Tail".

This one was not named. We gave it our own name....

And, lastly, the view from topside!