We took the Lower Cave guided tour of Carlsbad Caverns. Although the self-guided tours of the Big Room are indeed impressive, the Lower Cave tour is much more intimate and is a completely different experience compared to the Big Room tour. On our 3 hour venture, there were two guides and eight tourists. The entrance was fairly scary. First we had to scale down a sloped rock face using a knotted rope. That was no problem. That left us standing on a ledge, from which we had to step on a series of 3 ladders that were bolted to the walls of the cave. I didn't like the ladders much. Everything was wet and a bit slippery and the top is about 30ft from the cave floor.
If we were to visit again, I think we'd skip the town of Carlsbad and instead stay in Roswell. Carlsbad is bad. It just looks like a town that nobody cares about; lots of vacant buildings, the hotel was expensive and beat up, we didn't see any decent restaurants, and there doesn't seem to be much else to do except visit the caverns. On the other hand, Roswell looks like fun. They've really embraced the alien visitor theme, and it has a walkable downtown with some interesting looking shops and restaurants.
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