United States Show cave World Heritage
Carlsbad Cavern
17 °C inside, all year.
Daniel Mayer · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,326 m.
The real relief above Carlsbad Cavern, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
1,326m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
17°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
47m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
17 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 17 °C here, in January and in August. In June the afternoon reaches 35 °C at the entrance, 18 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from May to September.
- 12°-2°Jan
- 15°0°Feb
- 20°4°Mar
- 26°9°Apr
- 30°14°May
- 35°19°Jun
- 34°21°Jul
- 33°20°Aug
- 29°16°Sep
- 24°10°Oct
- 17°3°Nov
- 12°-1°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Show cave, centrepiece of Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Carlsbad Cavern is a show cave in United States. The entrance is at 1,326 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors. It lies within Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket required
- Parking 180 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- Cavern City Air Terminal (CNM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 24 km in a straight lineCar hire at ROW airport (Roswell)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmCarlsbad Cavern
- 4viewpoints within 3 kmWalnut Canyon and 3 more
- 6car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 3campsites within 8 kmParks Ranch Campground, Sunset Reef, Whites City RV Park
- 1hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmWhites City Cavern Inn
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 12 | 15 | 20 | 26 | 30 | 35 | 34 | 33 | 29 | 24 | 17 | 12 |
| Afternoon | 12 | 15 | 20 | 26 | 30 | 35 | 34 | 33 | 29 | 24 | 17 | 12 |
| Night | -2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 3 | -1 |
| Rain (mm) | 9 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 19 | 28 | 60 | 52 | 62 | 28 | 13 | 10 |
| Rainy days | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Sun hours/day | 8.0 | 8.7 | 9.8 | 11.5 | 11.9 | 12.2 | 10.9 | 10.2 | 9.4 | 9.0 | 8.1 | 7.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12 | 12 | -2 | 9 | 8.0 |
| Feb | 15 | 15 | 0 | 10 | 8.7 |
| Mar | 20 | 20 | 4 | 14 | 9.8 |
| Apr | 26 | 26 | 9 | 12 | 11.5 |
| May | 30 | 30 | 14 | 19 | 11.9 |
| Jun | 35 | 35 | 19 | 28 | 12.2 |
| Jul | 34 | 34 | 21 | 60 | 10.9 |
| Aug | 33 | 33 | 20 | 52 | 10.2 |
| Sep | 29 | 29 | 16 | 62 | 9.4 |
| Oct | 24 | 24 | 10 | 28 | 9.0 |
| Nov | 17 | 17 | 3 | 13 | 8.1 |
| Dec | 12 | 12 | -1 | 10 | 7.4 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,326 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 84% | 89% | 424% | 0% | 21% | 38% | 34% | 26% | 28% | 3% | 14% | 49% |
| 2021 | 90% | 37% | 4% | 149% | 107% | 287% | 63% | 195% | 40% | 9% | 28% | 79% |
| 2022 | 3% | 21% | 27% | 0% | 8% | 188% | 31% | 199% | 47% | 159% | 170% | 39% |
| 2023 | 87% | 37% | 4% | 5% | 131% | 35% | 23% | 94% | 31% | 82% | 98% | 61% |
| 2024 | 46% | 91% | 32% | 24% | 21% | 76% | 62% | 49% | 59% | 15% | 165% | 3% |
| 2025 | 30% | 0% | 7% | 220% | 155% | 296% | 90% | 71% | 53% | 36% | 49% | 36% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Carlsbad Cavern
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,326 mEntrance altitude
- 17 °CInside, all year
Lechuguilla Cave
United States · 6 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,413 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Sandia Cave
United States · 387 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 2,148 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Caverns of Sonora
United States · 389 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 674 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q95742097) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.You are here
dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit 
viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
birdwatching
Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Coming soonVisit 
forests
Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Coming soonVisit