Yesterday we visited Carlsbad Caverns.
Back in May we went to the Natural Bridge Caverns near San Antonio, TX, so this was not our first time exploring a cave.
The Natural Bridge Caverns was pretty pricey and it was a guided tour. We got into Carlsbad Caverns free with Cherish’s 4th grade pass, and we got to explore on our own. We loved both caverns for different reasons.
You can take an elevator down into the cave or you can walk down from the natural entrance. We chose to walk down. I read the cave is over 1,000 feet deep, and a park ranger told us the elevator goes down 754 feet.
The walk down was steep but not too steep. It was not slippery or slick. It was easy walking for all of our kids.
The natural entrance is pretty incredible. I loved looking down into it from the top and then back up to see the sunlight peeking through once we had gone a good ways down.
We love exploring caves. It’s just so fascinating getting to see the world underground.
There are so many intricate, beautiful, odd and unique details.
It took us about 2 1/2 hours to walk through the whole cave. There were shortcuts and options to take shorter routes. We chose to walk the whole thing. Our youngest three kids were really ready to be done for about the last 15 minutes. They kept a good attitude but were exhausted.
We did ride the elevator up at the end.
I told my little ones I thought they needed a treat after all that walking. They agreed and happily received a treat. Of course my big kids got one, too.