Carlsbad is a small city in New Mexico near the Texas border.

Activities

 • Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The town's main attraction is the nearby national park, which is home to a massive underground limestone cave, claimed to be the most beautiful in the world. If you're going there for the first time, buy an audio guide for $3; it has much more information than the boards (available in several languages). The deepest point of the cave is over 1500 feet below the surface, while the unguided tour descends to a depth of about 900 feet. More extensive ranger guided tours are available. The descent can be slightly taxing on the knees, so there's an elevator available that will take you down to a depth of 750 feet. Photography is allowed, food is not, except in the underground "lunch room."
 • Living Desert State Park is on the outskirts of town, near US 285. A small zoo/botanical garden dedicated to local flora and fauna, with a 1.5-mile trail through the (predominantly outdoor) exhibits. Open year round except Christmas, 8-8 in summer, 9-5 in winter; $3 fee. Web site (note that some of the links on this site were broken as of January 2006).

Shopping

Standard consumer goods are easy to get downtown or at a mall on the north side of town. Please do not patronize shops or vendors offering pieces of cave formations! They'll likely disintegrate before you get them home, won't look as good on a shelf as in the cave even if they do survive, and are likely to have been obtained illegally -- which means that your possession of them is likely to be illegal as well.

Get out

 • Guadalupe Mountains National Park is just across the Texas state line, if your adventures in Carlsbad Caverns leave you looking for more national-park recreation.
 • Sitting Bull Falls is in an unexpected and pleasant little park about 15 miles northwest of town, reachable via SR 137. Nice for picnics, particularly during the spring when the falls have enough water to be scenic. SR 137 continues on into the Guadalupe Mountains, with interesting scenery and some ferociously rough jeep roads and hiking trails. The "Guads" are honeycombed with caves, including some of the world's most beautiful, but most are for the experienced caver only (serious vertical work), and all require permits from the National Forest Service.
 • Brantley Lake north of town offers water sports (of a sort -- don't expect Lake Mead) and camping.
 • If you happen to be fascinated by UFOs -- Unidentified Flying Objects, or "flying saucers" -- the quirky, schlocky UFO Mecca of Roswell is about 80 miles north on US 285.