Popular State Guides
|
Free Traveling Guides » States » New Mexico » Greater New Mexico Natural Entrance Route
Unlike the King’s Palace Tour, the Natural Entrance route is a self-guided tour that enters one of the world’s largest caves through the huge, historic natural entrance. It is a 1-mile (1.6 km) tour and is quite difficult. It is, therefore, available only to visitors in good physical condition. Besides, this tour requires plenty of time.
It follows the traditional explorer’s route that descends more than 750 feet (228.6 m) into the earth. The route pursues a number of narrow and steep trails through a tall and spacious trunk passage, known as the Main Corridor. The route culminates in the underground rest area, very near to the Big Room route starting point and the elevators. The main highlights along this route include the Green Lake Overlook, the Bat Cave, the Bone-yard, and the Devil’s spring. The Bone-yard is a complex maze of highly-dissolved limestone rock evocative of Swiss cheese!
Another major attraction along the Route is the Iceberg Rock. This huge rock is a single 200,000 ton (180,000 tonne) boulder, which fell from the cave ceiling several thousands of years ago. Reservations are needed for the Natural Entrance Route. Also, anyone under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
- Hours: Memorial Day weekend to mid-August: 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM;
Mid-August to late May; 8:30 AM - 2 PM
|
Top 5 National Parks
- Great Smoky Mountains
- Grand Canyon
- Yosemite
- Olympic
- Yellowstone
All 58 national parks. |
