I went to New Mexico on a family vacation for a week and the main focus was not photography. I don’t have a lot to blog about from this trip, but I did have a good time. One of the first stops on my trip was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It is one of the closest National Parks to me, but I had never been. I don’t really love caves but we went to see it anyway and it was a very interesting experience.

One thing that you might want to know before visiting is that Carlsbad Caverns is quite busy, and you probably want to reserve a cave tour ticket a few days in advance. I didn’t realize this at first and had to change plans at the last minute to get to see the caverns. Also, there was a long line at the visitor center to pick up the tickets, but since I have an annual National Park Pass I got to bypass most of this and the tickets were only a dollar each, so consider getting a park pass before you plan your visit. The park is out in the Chihuahuan desert and the closest town is Carlsbad about 20 miles down the road. Carlsbad is a nice enough town, but there isn’t really a lot to do there besides go see the National Park, though we did also check out a desert wildlife zoo and Sitting Bull Falls in the Lincoln National Forest.

Once at the park, you have two options to get down into the caverns. One is a 1.25 mile walk down a steady decline until you get to the big room (about 750 ft below ground) or you can take the elevator. We did the long walk, and then rode the elevator back up to the visitor center. The walk is pleasant and cool but really dark until your eyes adjust to the dim lighting and there are several features to see along the way.

About 265 million years ago, parts of Texas and New Mexico were covered by a sea. A massive reef formed in this sea created by sponges and algae. As the years went by and the reef grew new layers, the underlying layers were slowly compressed and formed limestone. Eventually tectonic uplift caused the sea to become isolated from the ocean and cracks began to form in the limestone below. The water that seeped through the cracks, eroded and dissolved the limestone and created voids. As tectonic movement continued, mountain ranges were uplifted exposing the old reef rock and drained the water table. Sulfur-loving bacteria created sulfuric acid, further eroding the cracks in the rock to form vast caverns.

After the cave formation process was complete a million years ago or so, water seeped down through the rock and dripped into the cave. As the water emerges into the cave, each drop gives up a tiny amount of minerals that it had dissolved, leaving the minerals behind to form stalactites and stalagmites. Some of the stalactites and stalagmites meet and form columns. Carlsbad Caverns is full of these formations and this makes the cave an interesting place to tour.

It is difficult to shoot photos in a dimly lit cave, but I did bring my camera and took some decent photos. There are some lights in the caverns shining on features but the lights are very dim and create very dark shadow areas. I took a few photos with my phone but they generally aren’t very good as you can see artifacts from the computational correction. I mainly used my camera with a 35mm f/1.8 lens, which is the fastest lens I have. The only real trick to it is to step up the ISO until I was shooting at least 1/50s shutter speed, which is fast enough to get sharp images with a 35mm lens. The column above was shot at ISO3200, which provided a decent photo but with some noise. I used the noise reduction in Lightroom to clean it up a bit which works really well as long as you don’t overdo it. I also boosted the shadows as they were almost completely dark with the spotlight on the feature.

Shooting with a 35mm prime lens, I had no zoom ability so I did a 3-shot vertical panorama for the image below. I stitched it and applied noise correction using Lightroom. This was a very deep scene with features on the ceiling and floor and I was hoping to portray it well, but it does look a bit flat in the image.

After touring the big room and suppressing any claustrophobic feelings, I headed for the elevator. You have to go through a set of interlocked doors, I suppose to account for the pressure difference between the cavern and the surface and then it is a quick ride back to the visitor center where you can buy coffee mugs and shirts. I have more coffee mugs than I know what to do with and now I have another for some reason.

You can come back at sunset and watch the bats fly out of the cave. I considered doing this the night before but got busy doing something else. But it might be fun to see. Thanks for reading.