Carlsbad caverns is a national park site. And it is quite remarkable. If you are thinking about visiting I would say plan a whole day for it.

It has an interesting setup and the following pictures will take you through how you will experience the caverns.

You enter on the surface into an area that is what you normally expect at a national park. It is like a tourist center. There is lots of information, models, gifts and things like that. You learn about the caverns and get yourself oriented.

Then you enter an elevator and go down into the caverns. I think the trek is 300 feet down but I can't remember for sure. The picture I took here is the elevator at 300 feet deep.

When you get down there you enter another interesting area that is also like a smaller welcome center, gift shop, and snack bar. It's kind of cool because you now feel like you are in an underground cavern.

And there is all these various paths that you take to walk around the caverns. And there is a lot of it. But it is all very well laid out and easy to navigate. You can't get lost.

And there are different sections that highlight different archaelogical properties and attributes.

Typical of America's national parks is that there are plenty of signs and placards so you can learn a whole lot of interesting stuff.

I really couldn't get any great pictures because it is on the dark side down in the caverns. But there are areas that are very open like inside a football stadium. And there are areas that are less open.

This landscape diorama in the welcome center gives you a good idea of the size and the variety of the caverns.

Down in the caverns it is all very free wheeling. You can just walk around as you like and you can choose a variety of paths. Some are shorter and some are longer. It is a lot of fun just to walk various paths and enjoy the amazing stuff in the caverns.

There is miles of walking that you can do but that is all up to you. It can be a full day of walking around and exploring the cavern or you can just walk some of the various paths and go at your own pace. And it is all laid out very well. You can't get lost and everything has walkways that are well built and well maintained.

No matter how you do it you are going to enjoy it. I spent pretty much one day here and really liked it all.