Guadalupe mountains and Carlsbad caverns

I did this as part of a trip Thanksgiving 2022. We did not do Guadalupe, but did the NM mountains, white sands, and Carlsbad and then headed more west.

West Texas drive about 2 hours outside of San Antonio once you pass the Hill country is terrible, I mean terrible. I had no idea the extent of the Permian basin but no joke the traffic from that is insane, they were working on expanding the road from I10 to Carlsbad to 4 lanes so that may have helped a lot, but it was almost what I would call traffic for 1.5 to 2 hours of over sized semi trucks with O&G equipment and F450's with welding rigs, lol.

Given that if you like to explore, get away from tourism, get away from people, and just enjoy nature and southwestern cuisine I think its a great trip. We had to rush Carlsbad but there's some short hikes on the outside and I wish we would have had more time, I'm not sure the Cave is a full 8 hours but I'd give yourself plenty of time. Its absolutely incredible.

How was the weather? White Sands worth the extra drive?

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Would it be worth a 14 hr drive one way to visit?

Thanksgiving break.

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How many days are the break?

If it is a week I would say yes; if the break is Wed-Sun that would be a lot of driving for a relatively short visit. I don’t know if that would be worth it.

We did Guadalupe Mt, Carlsbad Cavern & White Sands this past March. Drove from NC.

GM has a old farm house site to visit but other than that it is just hikes.

Carlsbad Caverns took about 1/2 a day. We walked down, it’s 1.25 miles, but took the elevator back up. Once at the bottom we did the shorter loop. You could sign up for a ranger led walks that would take more time.

If you have a week and opt to go to White Sands check for road closures over the mountain. I don’t know when they get snow but there was still snow on the ground in March on the mountain.

WS is an in and out drive. It would take < 1/2 a day unless you just want to spend a lot of time sliding down the sand.

Depends on abilities. Consider doing the highest peak hike if staying there. I’ve not done it but want to. There is a small ranch and some other sights there at GNP. Carlsbad is fun and can take a day. You could add some other stuff to and from to make it a full week trip. 3-5 days would be plenty for CNP and GNP by themselves.

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Guadalupe mountains and Carlsbad caverns

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Would it be worth a 14 hr drive one way to visit?

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Definitely not. That's a boring stretch of land. You might as well just drive 10 hours to Mammoth Cave.

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How was the weather? White Sands worth the extra drive?

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We had great weather, we were in shorts for parts of the trip. But you can't guarantee that.

I lived in Alamagordo for 6 years while my dad was in the Air Force there so those parts of New Mexico are sentimental to me.

There's tons of State Forest land there to explore. A decent bit of things you can do in the area to extend your trip. Hard for me to recommend anything, nothing is mind blowing. But again the nice thing about New Mexico is its just the opposite of a Panama City or Gatlinburg trip, very very untouristy and authentic. But that authenticity is very very rough around the edges, lol.

Some other items to do in the area:
Cloudcroft - a couple hikes:
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Sunspot Observatory
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Alamagordo- World's largest pistachio
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Alamagordo Space museum

14 hours is a LONG damned way to see a hole in the ground with bats flying out of it (depending on time of year). There is not a lot to do in the area. It is a beautiful area but its 90 minutes at least to El Paso, which ain't much, and Carlsbad itself which is even less. If you do go stay in El Paso - oil field keeps Carlsbad motels booked and expensive.


Guadalupe Mountains are breathtakingly beautiful. Lot of hiking to be done, some of it is pretty intense. There is very limited camping available including some RV camping. There is not any lodging of any sort at the caverns...there is a small motel in Whites City New Mexico that people have told me is not horrible. It is not much to it though. There may or may not be a place to eat, it depends on the owners mood and schedule...New Mexico True!.

There are Barbary Sheep in the Caverns area, probably in the Guadalupe Park as well. You will see them most likely at the Caverns. Speed Goats (Antelope) in both areas but more common in Texas than the area in New Mexico. There are Mountain Lions as well but very rare to see one.

There is a pretty neat and very isolated area just inside New Mexico at the state line called the Black River Recreational Area and Rattlesnake Springs Historic DIstrict. There is some lodging here but it is very limited. Place is CRAWLING with Turkeys. Very quite and peaceful. About halfway between Carlsbad and the Caverns.

Roswell NM is about 90 minutes from Carlsbad. Kids seem to LOVE the UFO stuff. There is skiing not far from Roswell but probably not in November. If there is snow there is also a great place to rent a tube and go snow tubing. The area where the skiing is is gorgeous but it is a LONG way from El Paso. White Sands is also not far from El Paso but not much to see or do other than slide down a sand dune on a piece of cardboard or plastic.

When we lived in Carlsbad people would come to town to see the Caverns and I always figured they would be slightly disappointed. There is not a lot to see and do in the area other than be alone in some truly beautiful scenery where noise is almost non existent. Carlsbad itself is a very small town with a massive population of oil field workers. Motels are expensive and restaurants are packed and there ain't a lot of them. If you do the trip El Paso is a real city - it is not a lot but it has about anything one would expect. If you are not scared of lies and Mexicans Juarez is a FANTASTIC day trip from El Paso. Its perfectly safe unless you are looking to get into a life of crime and then it is perfectly unsafe.

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only if you stop for a couple days in san antonio...otherwise no that drive SUCKS. fly to el paso, rent a car, and enjoy the area

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Or Hobbs or Roswell. It is a SERIOUSLY long damned drive from San Antonio to El Paso. It is BEAUTIFUL for a couple of hours but it gets old way before it gets done. May be some commercial flights to Carlsbad itself....Boutique Air used to fly to DFW from Carlsbad. It was very hard to get a seat though.

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Best BBQ sandwich I ever had was in Cloudcroft at Mad Jack's. It had Hatch chilis in it, and I still think about it to this day.

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Truly a sad statement. Mad Jack's is as good as any smoked mean place in Texas but it ain't BBQ and it is not as good as gas station BBQ in Georgia. South Carolina or North Carolina. I was at an event with the owner once about 8 years ago and I brought some actual BBQ and he bugged the shite out of me about where I got it and when I told him my back yard he was first dumfounded and then bugged the shite out of me about what I did to it. I tried to explain it was nothing more than a smoked pork butt with hickory and not creosote (very similar flavor to mesquite) and simply Georgia BBQ. He never accepted it. They have pulled pork....its pretty good, they'd starve to death trying to sell it in Georgia.