Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center

Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center is the park’s main starting point for anyone heading underground, a large complex overlooking the Permian Basin at 4,406 feet. Pick up information and cavern tickets here, then choose the elevator or the Natural Entrance for the cave. Give yourself time for the exhibits even if the underground route is your main goal. Entry arrangements can change, so check the current ticket instructions before you drive in.

Hands-on exhibits explain how the cavern formed, then widen the story to desert plants and animals and park history. The free 16-minute film, Hidden World, is an easy preview of the underground experience; ask at the desk for the next showing.

The 34,000-square-foot visitor center was completed in 1957 and has served as the contact and assembly point for cavern visitors. Its layout still makes that job clear: information, the restaurant and gift shop are left of the central doors, while ticketing, exhibits, bookstore and theater are to the right.

The on-site restaurant serves hot and cold meals, snacks and drinks, with Southwestern choices such as green chile stew and a prickly-pear BBQ pork torta; grab-and-go options make it easy to eat before or after the cavern. The bookstore and gift shop are on hand, too. A kennel is listed at the center, but check its current rules and availability before counting on it for a pet.

From the center, the view reaches across the Permian Basin. Picnic tables sit at the far east end of the parking lot and south of the restaurant. A partly accessible nature-trail section starts from the east lot if you want a short walk outside.

Turn north from US 62/180 at White’s City onto NM 7; from the gate, it’s seven miles along the park entrance road to the visitor center, about 25 miles from Carlsbad. Ramps connect accessible parking with the center, theater, bookstore, gift shop, restrooms and restaurant, and the public facilities are on the ground floor.