Carlsbad Caverns National Park - New Mexico

Established May 14, 1930

46,766 acres

The Chihuahuan Desert, studded with spiky plants and lizards, offers little hint that what Will Rogers called the "Grand Canyon with a roof on it" waits underground. Yet, at the northern reaches of this great desert, underneath a mountain range called the Guadalupes, lies one of the deepest, largest, and most ornate caverns ever found.

Water molded this underworld 4 to 6 million years ago. Some 250 million years ago, the region lay underneath the inland arm of an ancient sea. Near the shore grew a limestone reef. By the time the sea withdrew, the reef stood hundreds of feet high, later to be buried under thousands of feet of soil. Some 15 to 20 million years ago, the ground uplifted. Slightly acidic groundwater seeped into cracks in the limestone, gradually enlarging them to form a honeycomb of chambers. Millions of more years passed before the cave decoration began. Then, drop by drop, limestone-laden moisture built an extraordinary variety of glistening formations. Some of these are six stories tall; others tiny, delicate confections.

Cave scientists have explored more than 30 miles of passageways of the main cavern of Carlsbad, and investigation continues. Visitors may tour 3 of these miles on a paved trail. The Slaughter Canyon Cave provides the hardy an opportunity to play spe-lunker, albeit with a guide. The park has more than 90 other caves open primarily to specialists.

Some visitors think the park's most spectacular sight is the one seen at the cave's mouth. More than a half million Mexican free-tailed bats summer in a section of the cave, and around sunset they spiral up from the entrance to hunt for insects. The nightly exodus led to the discovery of the cave in modern times. Around the turn of the century, miners began to excavate bat guano—a potent fertilizer—for shipment to the citrus groves of southern California. One of the guano miners, James Larkin White, became the first to explore and publicize the caverns beyond the Bat Cave.