When planning a visit to America’s national parks, some destinations require no prior knowledge to understand immediately upon arrival. White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico is one of those places. The moment the Dunes Drive enters the gypsum dune field and the landscape goes from the tan desert scrub of the Tularosa Basin to pure white in every direction, the park explains itself. There is nothing else that looks like this.
The caverns sit beneath the Chihuahuan Desert of southeastern New Mexico, and what is underground there is not a modest geological curiosity. The Big Room — the main chamber of Carlsbad Cavern — is one of the largest cave chambers in North America, covering 8.2 acres at its widest and reaching 255 feet at its highest point. It contains stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, popcorn formations, and cave pearls in a density and a variety that makes Laurel Caverns, wonderful as it is, feel like a preview of what a cave can actually be.