White Sands & Carlsbad Caverns National Parks, New Mexico
We love visiting National Parks in the U.S. and have explored more than 30 across the country. New Mexico is home to two truly unique parks—White Sands National Park, the world’s largest gypsum dune field, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park, known for its vast limestone cave system. I’ve always found caves intriguing and fascinating, and I've always wanted to capture the feeling of stepping on those soft, pristine white sands, so both parks were on my bucket list. We finally made it happen with a road trip from Austin over the May long weekend last year, and I wanted to share some tips and highlights from that trip. Carlsbad Caverns: We drove from Austin to Carlsbad and stayed at White's City Cavern Inn, conveniently located just 10 minutes from the park entrance. I had booked a timed entry reservation for 9:30 a.m. the next morning for a self-guided tour of the caves. I had initially hoped to join the guided King’s Palace tour, but due to limited staffing, tickets weren’t a...
