Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains, a mountain range that runs from west Texas into southeastern New Mexico. Elevations within the park rise from 1,095 meters (3,595 feet) in the lowlands to 1,987 meters (6,520 feet) atop the escarpment. Though there are scattered woodlands in the higher elevations, the park is primarily a variety of grassland and desert shrubland habitats.

The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest and wettest of the North American deserts. Most of this desert is in Mexico, but the park is one of the few places where it is preserved and protected. The park averages more than 36.6 cm (14.4 in) of annual precipitation and has a semiarid, continental climate with mild winters, warm summers, and summer rains. The mean annual temperature is 19ºC (63ºF).

The park supports a diverse ecosystem, including habitat for many plants and animals that are at the geographic limits of their ranges. For example, the ponderosa pine reaches its extreme eastern limit here and several species of reptiles are at the edges of their distributions.

The deserts of the Southwest contain some of the highest diversity of mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects in the United States. The park provides important habitat for top predators such as cougars, and is home to what is perhaps the largest colony of cave swallows in the northern hemisphere. The Bat Cave area in Carlsbad Cavern provides important habitat for a large colony of Brazilian (Mexican) free-tailed bats as a place to give birth and raise young, as well as a stopover for migrating bats.  

Rattlesnake Springs, a rare desert wooded riparian area that has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the National Audubon Society, draws birders from around the world to see some of the 300-plus species that have been noted there. The Carlsbad Cavern Natural Entrance is also an Audubon IBA because of the large colony of cave swallows that resides and breeds there in the summer. Current checklists for park fauna identify 67 species of mammals (including 17 species of bats), 357 species of birds, 55 different reptiles and amphibians, 5 species of fish, and an incomplete list of over 600 insects, with more identified each year. The park’s list of vascular plants includes more than 900 species and subspecies.

Underlying the rugged desert landscape is one of the most important geologic resources in the United States. The Guadalupe Mountains are the uplifted portion of an ancient reef that thrived along the edge of an inland sea more than 250 million years ago during Permian time. Preserved in the rocks are the bodies of sponges, algae, snails, nautilus, and many other animals that lived in this ancient sea. Scientists from all over the world visit the park each year to study the structure and fauna of the reef.

The most famous of all the geologic features in the park are the caves. Carlsbad Caverns National Park contains more than 110 limestone caves, the most famous of which is Carlsbad Cavern. Carlsbad Cavern receives more than 300,000 visitors each year and offers a rare glimpse of the underground worlds preserved under the desert above. 

Caves are fragile environments that are affected by human activities and natural processes occurring both underground and on the surface. Many park caves are preserved and managed in a nearly pristine state, so researchers can understand the unique ecosystem within them. These scientists are only beginning to understand the complex, microscopic organisms that inhabit the caves. Studying them has already revealed a food chain that begins with minerals in the rock, and has shown that some of the organisms may help serious human diseases such as cancer.

Follow the links from this page to further explore the resources of Carlsbad Caverns National Park and discover the rich ecosystem both on the surface and deep underground. Then, explore the park in person and experience these resources first-hand.