An Exclusive Adventure into New Mexico’s Spider Cave

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Carlsbad Caverns National Park’s name is plural, which causes quite a bit of confusion for many of the park’s visitors – especially when they find out that the cave they’re going into is simply called Carlsbad Cavern, singular. This is because the park is actually home to somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-140 different caves, most of which are not accessible to the general public. In effect, when the park is fully staffed, fully operational, and everything is working properly – which I know is a big ask – the park has two caves that it offers regular tours of. Carlsbad Cavern is the primary one, in which the Main Corridor, Big Room, King’s Palace, Lower Cave, Left Hand Tunnel, and Hall of the White Giant tours all take place – sometimes. The other, totally separate cave, Slaughter Canyon Cave, is supposed to have tours available but has not had them in a long time thanks to consistent staffing issues (which I may shed more light on at another time). Those two caves are cool enough as it is, but the others in the park boundaries are what truly elevate this place to its well-deserved UNESCO World Heritage Site status. One of those spectacular caves, located just a canyon over from the visitor center, is Spider Cave. Recently, I had a rare opportunity to take part in an expedition into this cave. I participated as part of an officially permitted monitoring crew, and I documented the experience. Now, I’m sharing it with you.

Once upon a time, there were Ranger-led tours of Spider Cave. However, extremely high radon levels inside the cave made it unsafe for rangers to regularly lead tours, and after this risk was identified, tours were discontinued to protect staff. There is talk of possible reopening of tours at some point, but I’ve heard nothing from any of my sources regarding concrete plans. Still, people do occasionally have to go into the cave for various different tasks; the subject of my expedition was checking radon monitors. Despite this, and despite the fact that this tour was routinely offered in the past, available photos of Spider Cave online are few and far between – most of the photos that pop up on Google are of Carlsbad Cavern or even of Lechuguilla Cave — another distinct cave located inside the park. I found very few photos of Spider Cave anywhere online. So, to remedy that for my readers, I am publishing the photos I took within the cave here.

The Ghost Room in Spider Cave

It’s also important to note here that Park Rangers in National Parks, even “cave parks” are not necessarily cavers, and they’re not the ones doing the caving expeditions – at least not on work time. This is especially true at Carlsbad where the staff is more or less a revolving door – no one sticks around long. The job of a Park Ranger and the job of a caver are not necessarily the same thing; it’s a common misconception that the Rangers must get to go down into the deepest, most inaccessible parts of the caves on a regular basis. The truth is, most Rangers won’t ever go beyond the established tour routes during their time working at the park. They exist to educate the public, so they stay in the areas where the public are. Most are not NCRC certified in any capacity. Instead, most of the caving done in National Parks is done by either researchers or volunteers. I bring this up because it wasn’t the National Park Service per se that offered up this opportunity, it was simply a volunteer opportunity that I took. If you ever wish to get more involved in caving, check out this article I wrote on how to get started. With that said, however, this was a pretty rare opportunity; the crew was only 6 people, and this trip is unlikely to be repeated any time soon. Essentially, this is an exclusive look at Spider Cave only available through Born Again Outdoors.

Spider Cave is, just like Carlsbad Cavern, a limestone solution cave. There is a great deal of speculation that it may even connect to Carlsbad Cavern somewhere, though the exact location and nature of that connection remains unknown. It’s a horizontal cave and a pretty easy one at that, it requires no vertical equipment or ropes, just some moderate climbing in a few spots. However, the two reasons it has its name are likely to ward off many prospecting cavers. First, you’ll be crawling a lot – like a spider. Second, there are “spiders” (Daddy Longlegs actually) in the longest crawling portion of the cave at the very beginning.

I would’ve captured photos of them, but that portion of the cave is quite difficult to photograph for a very simple reason: you have absolutely no mobility for a good portion of it. The crawl is very tight, and will hug your body tightly for most of the time you’re in it. In some places, you won’t be able to fit your helmet through without basically turning your head to the side and putting your cheek on the ground. It’s in these spots where you’ll look up and see the blanket of Daddy Longlegs covering the ceiling, but it’d be exceedingly difficult to photograph them, because you won’t be able to move your arms enough to grab your phone. So that’s why I don’t have a picture of it.

It’s also worth noting that you cannot go into this cave if there’s a chance of rain. If you do, the cave floods. You won’t die – probably – but getting out is going to be tough. What you’ll have to do is go through the portion of the cave I just described on your back, and use the inch or so of clearance between the top of the water and the roof of the cave to suck in enough air to get you through. This is undoubtedly reason enough to keep most folks from ever venturing into the cave, and is also a good reason to have a permit process for access.

The author emerging from the crawl in Spider Cave

Once you’re through the crawl, the cave opens up into a big, open room, and from this point forward, you’ll be able to walk or chimney for most of the cave. The first named feature you’ll come to is the “River of Blood,” which is a reddish-orange flowstone formation with a pool at the bottom that you’ll climb down into.

It’s at this point that the cave starts getting weird. Like, genuinely, the speleothems in this cave are bizarre. Brain-breaking at times. Flowstone that’s so rich with color it may as well be a Pollock painting. Giant mangled messes of gypsum and limestone that look like the gooey marshmallow fluff produced when you first smush together a s’more. In “The Ghost Room” there’s a tiny speleothem that looks like a person – “The Ghost.” Normally, I would work these photos into the article as I wrote out the whole experience, but honestly, I have so many, and since it’s unlikely anyone else is going into this cave any time soon, I’ll put them all at the end of this article so you can share part of the experience.

“The Ghost” — a tiny person-shaped speleothem in Spider Cave

This was one of the most beautiful and interesting caves I have ever been in, from the tangled stalactites of the Medusa Room to the strange crystalline formations of the Cactus Room. It got me thinking – as nature tends to do to me – about this place’s existence, as it is, within a national park, yet inaccessible, and unknown, to the vast majority of people. I thought about the beauty of this cave, and how despite it being just on the other side of the canyon from Carlsbad Cavern, it is a completely different cave, with its own personality and features. It is another world, in many respects. In fact, each of these caves – and indeed, every cave I have ever been in – is a distinct world from all others. And the fact is that this is just one of many thousands of hidden gems our planet still has to offer. No one will ever see all of them. That doesn't make them less valuable than the places everyone does get to see, like Carlsbad Cavern. And really, would I even want to have seen them all? That would mean there's nothing left for me to marvel at for the first time.