The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180, approximately 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico.

[3] Approximately two-thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat.

[5] An estimated 250 million years ago, the area surrounding Carlsbad Caverns National Park served as the coastline for an inland sea.

The sulfuric acid then continued upward, aggressively dissolving the limestone deposits to form caverns.

The presence of gypsum within the cave is a confirmation of the occurrence of this process, as it is a byproduct of the reaction between sulfuric acid and limestone.

Erosion above ground created the natural entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns within the last million years.

Additionally, water on the floor of the caverns can contain carbonic acid and generate mineral deposits by evaporation.

[13] ... a limestone cavern known as the Carlsbad Cave, of extraordinary proportions and of unusual beauty and variety of natural decoration; ... beyond the spacious chambers that have been explored, other vast chambers of unknown character and dimensions exist; ... the several chambers contain stalactites, stalagmites, and other formations in such unusual number, size, beauty of form, and variety of figure as to make this a cavern equal, if not superior, in both scientific and popular interest to the better known caves ...Some of the following rooms are not open to the public because of inaccessibility and safety issues.

A program is given in the early evening at the amphitheater near the main entrance prior to the start of the flight, which varies with the sunset time.

[26] A similar, smaller room was found in the main entrance corridor, and was named Balloon Ballroom in honor of this technique.

In 1993, a series of small passages totaling nearly a mile in combined length was found in the ceiling of the New Mexico Room.

Calling themselves the Twisted Sisters, they added names to the map of the Carlsbad Cavern, such as the Tomb of the Sky Bears, Ladies’ Lament, and Wriggler’s Relief.

[28] Continued exploration by volunteers has pushed the total surveyed length of Carlsbad Cavern to almost 40 miles.

Carlsbad Caverns is the most famous and is fully developed with electric lights, paved trails, and elevators.

[33] After gaining permission from the national park managers to dig into a rubble pile where wind whistled between the rocks when the weather changed, cavers broke through into a room in 1986.

[33] It has been mapped to a depth of 1,600 feet (490 m), making it the second deepest limestone cave in the U.S.[34] To protect the fragile environment, access is limited to permitted scientific expeditions only.

[35] It has been estimated that the population of Mexican free-tailed bats once numbered in the millions but has declined drastically in modern times.

[36] A study published in 2009 by a team from Boston University questions whether millions of bats ever existed in the caverns.

[40] (Jim White decided to investigate the caverns when he saw the bats from a distance and at first thought they were a volcano or a whirlwind.

As a wooded riparian area in the desert, it is home to remarkable variety of birds; over 300 species have been recorded.

The natural entrance to the caverns is also an IBA because of its colony of cave swallows, possibly the world's largest.