1 Epic Day from Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Carlsbad Caverns
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From the top of Texas to the bottom of New Mexico, these two national parks are a wonder to behold, and they’re 30 minutes from each other. Exploring the mountains from Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Carlsbad Caverns National Park is SO worth it!
To be honest, I almost skipped them – just the fact that you need reservations for the Carlsbad Caverns turned me off. But things worked out and I took one day to explore both national parks.
It was one of the most fun, mesmerizing, impressive days in nature ever.
And really, that’s all I needed – half a day in each park for a spectacular day in some of the best American national parks.
In this guide, I’ll cover what each national park is like and why it’s so amazing, as well as a few options for spending half your day in each.
I’ll go over exactly what I did in detail. So, here’s my guide to exploring Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks in one day!
How to Get to the Guadalupe Mountains
This random mountain range in the middle of nowhere is closest to El Paso, Texas, only 1 hour and 55 minutes (113 miles) away.
For reference, the closest big city is Albuquerque, 5 hours (333 miles) away. You could fly into the Carlsbad airport, which is really close to both national parks, but it doesn’t have many flights coming in.
So, El Paso is the best city to fly into. And if you have 1 or 2 more days, make it a road trip from El Paso, through Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains, to White Sands National Park and back. It’s one of my favorite road trips to date!
Reservations at Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Before you travel, make sure you make a reservation to enter the Carlsbad Caverns.
You can make reservations a month in advance, but you don’t necessarily have to plan that far ahead. We made ours the day before we visited on a random Tuesday in February and there were hundreds left.
Reservations for Carlsbad Caverns National Park only cost $1 per person. Then, you have to show the confirmation e-mail and pay the usual entrance fee or show your America the Beautiful pass when you get to the front desk.
If you go to the Carlsbad Caverns without a reservation, they do accept some walk-ins every day, but you never know if they’ve run out for the day. So, go at your own risk of not being able to get in.
For this itinerary, you’ll want to reserve for the last slot at 1:15 (so you can enter any time between 1:15 and 2:15). This is because the Guadalupe Mountains are best enjoyed in the morning, before the Texas heat.
Self-Guided, King’s Palace or Lower Cave?
When you make your reservation, you’ll see these three options. If you do the self-guided tour, you can get to know the main area of the Carlsbad Caverns on your own on the red and blue lines.
If you choose the King’s Palace, you’ll get a tour of the area that goes left on the map with the black line. Lower Cave is a whole other level under everything you see in the map.
The self-guided tour is perfect for an afternoon visit, since it takes 2-3 hours to do the tour yourself.
As of 2025, only the self-guided tours are always available. Staff shortages in Carlsbad Caverns National Park have made it so that guided tours are only available sometimes. For example, for Memorial Day in 2025, King’s Palace tours might be available, and only if you go up to the front desk and ask. It’s always changing, so check the Recreation.gov site for the most updated info!
Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Carlsbad Caverns in One Day
The Best Hikes in Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Start your day with a hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
The Guadalupe Mountains are a gigantic ancient coral reef that was pushed up above the ground millions of years ago. That by itself piqued my curiosity about it!
Plus, it’s such a random outcropping of impressive mountains, rising out of nowhere between Texas and New Mexico, that I had to visit.
And there’s not much else to do in the Guadalupe Mountains but hike.
Yes, you can see the mountains from below and there are a few drives to beautiful areas, but it’s one of the least drivable national parks I’ve been to. You pretty much get to the Visitor Center, park, and hike. So here are the best hikes in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
1. Pratt Cabin or The Grotto
This hike takes you through McKittrick Canyon, which is one of the three must-see parts of the Guadalupe Mountains. It’s called the most beautiful spot in Texas for a reason. It’s like an oasis right in between two very inhospitable states: Texas and New Mexico.
The gorgeous creek that flows through the canyon gives everything life. There’s a bunch of wildlife and the trees become a vivid green in the summer. Then, in the fall, you actually get to see the landscape turn orange and red. It’s an unexpected place.
Lala and I went to McKittrick Canyon the day before we did this exact itinerary. However, it’s only open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. They actually close the gates on you if you stay too late, so we didn’t get to see much.
We didn’t mind, though, because we had our eyes set on two better hikes out of the Pine Spring Visitor Center.
2. Devil’s Hall Trail
The Devil’s Hall Trail is the shortest hike from the Pine Spring Visitor Center, at 4.8 miles, with 550 feet of elevation gain.
It’s just plain fun!
You begin hiking and quickly end up in a dried-up river bed, jumping from rock to rock or scrambling over them. It’s beautiful the entire way.
Then, you enter a part of the hike with really interesting features, like thin slabs of rock piled up on top of each other going way up. It’s wonderful to look at and even better to hike in.
Finally, you get to the Devil’s Hall, which is a narrow slot made of the same slabs of rock, and you walk all the way through it. After that, you can hike a little longer and then turn back to relive the fun and hike back to the parking lot.
Lala did this hike and LOVED it while I hiked to Guadalupe Peak.
3. Guadalupe Peak
Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas, sitting at 8,751 feet. The hike from the Pine Springs Trailhead to Guadalupe Peak is 8.4 miles with 3,000 feet of elevation gain. So, yeah, it’s a tough hike!
Because of that, I started at 6:30. The parking lot wasn’t too full (although, it was a random Tuesday in February), and I got to see an incredible sunrise as I walked up the first section.
The hike starts off very difficult, with a TON of switchbacks. for the entire first third of the hike. The second part, if you begin early in the morning, is mostly in the shade and even prettier. All of a sudden, there’s more green and bigger trees. Then, the last third is rocky and steep again, with some tough switchbacks all the way to the summit.
Be warned – I counted 3 false summits getting to the top!
At the top, you get an amazing view of all the land around you. The best feature is El Capitan, which is right under you like a rose made of limestone. Amazing!
I even got to see a Blue Origin rocket launch! As I ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich at the summit, I heard a BOOM. Looking south, I could see the smoke of the launch, but I didn’t actually get to see the rocket.
Hiking to Guadalupe Peak is the BEST thing to do in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Half a Day
The Carlsbad Caverns are also a part of the ancient coral reef that is the Guadalupe Mountains.
But the park is underground.
And while the Guadalupe Mountains are in Texas, the Carlsbad Caverns are in New Mexico, just 30 minutes away. I almost skipped visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park because of the hassle of reservations and how isolated it is.
That would have been a BIG mistake. The Carlsbad Caverns are astounding!
The caverns are enormous, you actually get to go SO deep underground, and formations you see are the weirdest. Seriously, every turn of the path inside the caverns leads to a new work of art created by nature over millions of years.
The whole experience was awe-inspiring from start to finish and our mouths were either smiling in wonder or wide open in awe the whole time.
So, after a morning hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains, head over to the Carlsbad Caverns to have your mind blown all afternoon.
1. The Main Corridor
You can take an elevator down to the main area, which is the Big Room. And it’ll be tempting after a tough morning of hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains but let me tell you – you’d be missing out big time!
I was NOT prepared for how big the mouth of the cavern was, and neither did I expect how steep the hike down would be!
It’s impressive!
The dimensions of the cavern are difficult to grasp because they’re so huge from the get-go.
As you hike down and down, the cavern becomes pitch-black until your eyes adjust to the dramatic yellow light from lamps. They light the way and shine on features far off and close to the path for you to see.
You’ll get to see stalactites and stalagmites of all shapes and sizes, but I can’t stress enough how amazing the giant ones are.
You get to walk through huge caverns and then in between narrow gaps. There’s also a 200,000-ton rock you have to walk around!
The hike down is 1.2 miles at a 45-degree angle (through switchbacks, thankfully). You end up walking 800 feet underground!
2. The Big Room
The Big Room is full of… everything! As I write, I’m having trouble finding the words to describe it because there’s so much to see. Here’s a picture with a bunch of formations… and FYI, from left to right, this panoramic photo covers like 200 feet of the cavern.
This cavern is one enormous room with a 1.2-mile path looping through it. You’ll see stalagmites of the craziest proportions, forests of small stalactites hanging from the ceiling, long stalactites eerily reaching down, popcorn features, lilly pond rocks, a bottomless pit… I mean, there’s SO much!
Though it’s only 1.2 miles of walking on mostly flat ground, we spent 2 hours going around looking at everything and stopping, amazed at every turn. It really is a treat!
Finally, if you started the Big Room loop by walking to the right (counter-clockwise), the walk ends at the elevators to head straight back into the Visitor Center. That is ideal (to say the least) after all that walking. If you walk back up, that’s a REALLY difficult hike.
3. Bat Flight at the Carlsbad Caverns
Now, I didn’t get to see this because I visited in February. But there’s an event every day at sunset when you can see bats fly out of the main entrance to the cave.
It happens every day from late May through October!
If you exit the Carlsbad Caverns after touring in the afternoon, you’ll be just in time to take a break and then walk back to the cave amphitheater to watch the bats fly out.
That would be an incredible way to finish off an incredible day from Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Carlsbad Caverns!
After FULLY exploring the best hikes in Guadalupe Mountains National Park and all of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, celebrate with a huge meal… you deserve it!
I got a full 30,394 steps and I walked up 250 flights! It was a crazy day.
Where to Stay for Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains
You know you’re in the middle of nowhere when there aren’t many places to stay! That being said, I had to figure it out while we were there, and there are some nice options.
1. Free camping near Guadalupe Mountains National Park
We camped in our SUV at the Pine Springs Safety Rest Area the night before doing this exact itinerary.
It was perfect because we were just 13 minutes away from the Pine Springs Visitor Center. That made getting up early to starting our hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park really easy.
The other spot is the Sunset Reef Campground, which is 31 minutes from the Pine Springs Visitor Center and 22 minutes from the Carlsbad Caverns.
It’s an established campground and is farther from the highway (less noise).
But there are even more places to camp for free!
If you’re planning any sort of trip in the Southwest, I actually made a free map with 70+ free car camping spots I found and vetted during my 2 years on the road. It’s my go-to resource whenever I’m planning where to sleep for the night.
👉 Grab the map for free below – I’ll email it to you right away!
2. Camping in the Guadalupe Mountains
You can find camping at three different campgrounds in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and there are no campgrounds in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. If you plan on camping in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, make reservations as soon as possible because they fill up quick!
3. The Most Convenient Hotels
There’s a motel called White’s City Cavern Inn right outside of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. However, it doesn’t look very nice.
The closest good hotel options are in the town of Carlsbad, which is 55 minutes from the Guadalupe Mountains Visitor Center and 36 minutes from the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center.
Frequently Asked Questions
One day is all you need to get in 1 or 2 gorgeous hikes. But I would spend just half a day to be able to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park too.
If you want to spend even more time there, there are miles and miles of established and backcountry trails as well. So, really, how much time you spend there depends on your hiking desires and expertise.
1 day is enough to see best views and do the best hikes – Guadalupe Peak, Devil’s Hall, and McKittrick Canyon.
Half a day is all you need to see these impressive caverns. The best way to spend time in Carlsbad Caverns National Park is to visit in the afternoon to do the self-guided tour and then see the bat flight event at sunset.
Now, there are other guided tours (like King’s Palace) through other parts of the cavern, but their availability is inconsistent right now due to staffing shortages. Right now, they’re only available sometimes and only sold at the front desk, not online.
However, check online anyway because things are always changing nowadays!
Either way, the best part of the Carlsbad Caverns is the self-guided tour.
Late February is the best season to visit the Guadalupe Mountains. That’s when I went, and it was already getting very hot towards noon, but hiking in the morning was wonderful in the crisp spring air.
Carlsbad is the town closest to Carlsbad Caverns. It has lot of hotel options and restaurants, which makes it the ideal place to stay during a visit to the Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
It can be very strenuous or not at all! The easy option is to take an elevator down to the Big Room and back up. The hike in the cavern is 1.2 miles long and flat.
But my recommendation is to walk down through the mouth of the cavern so that you don’t miss the spectacular formations there. It’s very steep, and you descend about the height of the Empire State Building.
If you hike up that way, it would be VERY strenuous.
So, now you know how to spend a perfect day in exploring the wonders of nature from Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Carlsbad Caverns.
I visited these parks during my road trip from Texas to California, and this was an amazing day in two ridiculously beautiful national parks. Don’t skip them!
If you have any questions about anything, comment below and I’ll be sure to answer!
