Unreal. Awesome. Amazing. Spectacular. Mysterious. Enchanting. These are just a few of the words that come to mind when I think about Carlsbad Caverns.

The caverns were discovered in 1898 by a sixteen year old boy named, Jim White, who noticed a big black whirl in the distance. As he got closer, he realized the black whirl was actually a ton of bats exiting a giant black hole in the mountain. Days later, he returned with supplies to make a ladder that would allow him to descend into the hole. He spent much of his time exploring the cave with homemade torches.  After the Caverns were featured in publications like National Geographic and The New York Times, Congress established this area as a national park in 1930, well over 30 years after Jim had first discovered them.