Carlsbad Caverns National Park With Dogs

Spoiler alert. Dogs are not allowed in the caverns.

• Pets are not allowed in the caverns.
• You are not allowed to leave your pet unattended in vehicles. They must be kenneled.
• Pets are not allowed on unpaved park trails on the surface or off road
• Pets are not allowed during the Bat Flight Program
• Pets are not allowed in the visitor center.

So, what do you do if you are visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park with dogs?

Option # 1: Carlsbad Kennels

Please note, we did not use this option.

Carlsbad Caverns Trading Company has a kennel service for $15 a day for day use only. This is a very basic service (not like a regular dog hotel) as employees do not handle your dogs, meaning, they don’t take them out for bathroom breaks. It is just a kennel for your pet to stay (they do provide water) so you can take a tour of the caverns.

Details may change, always check the latest requirements here.

Option #2: Take Turns Touring the Caverns

You can make reservations accordingly to take turns touring the Caverns while the other pet parent either stays at your lodging site (hotel, airbnb, etc.) with your pet(s) or if you are a quick hiker and don’t plan to stay in the Caverns for a hours, could wait in the car or walk around the parking lot if it’s not too hot.

We are fast hikers (and walkers) so we knew we could each be in and out of the Caverns in about an hour. Could you spend hours in the Caverns roaming? Sure! But we were ok with a quicker visit knowing we’d each get a turn and we wouldn’t have to kennel our dogs.

Here is exactly how we planned our Carlsbad Caverns visit with solo trips into the Caverns without kenneling our dogs.

• We stayed in nearby Carlsbad, NM. which is a 35 min. drive to the Caverns. 
• We booked individual self-guided tours in advance.
  • One at 8:30am (the first available option) and one at 10:30am. 
  • You can enter any time within your hour reservation (example: 8:30am reservation you can enter between 8:30-9:30).
  • They do state that reservations are required. When we were there late December, a lot of people were walking up and getting reservations at the visitor’s center and didn’t have one in advance. The time they got I believe was just as openings were available and may not have been immediate.
• Drew left the Airbnb early to get in right at 8:30am, I stayed behind with the corgis.
• We both planned to take the Natural Entrance which is a very steep 1.25 mile switchback path down into the Caverns. You can do this option or just take the elevator.
  • The Natural Entrance is 1.25 miles before you get to The Big Room area. The Big Room itself has 2 options: the full 1.25 mile walk or the 0.6 mile shortcut walk. 
  • Natural Entrance + Full Big Room = 2.5 miles
  • Natural Entrance + Big Room Shortcut = 1.85 miles
  • Big Room = either 1.25 miles (full walk) or 0.6 miles (short cut)
  • Drew did the full walk and I did the shortcut. If you are short on time, the short cut still offers amazing views and I don’t feel that I missed out on anything not doing the full walk – especially with doing the Natural Entrance.
• I left the Airbnb at 9:30 with the corgis and arrived shortly after 10:00. Drew was done by this point. He jumped in the car with the corgis and I headed in to get my ticket. (You still need to stand in line even with a reservation).
• Drew walked the corgis around the parking lot area for a while. It was late December so not too hot out. If you are there in the summer, be careful walking pets around outside.
• I was ready to head into the Caverns right at 10:30am and completed the Caverns in about an hour.

We actually had planned to individually drive to the Caverns and back to the Airbnb in Carlsbad to swap but because it was so nice out, we opted to hang out in the parking lot with the corgis for the second part now knowing we could each do the Caverns in about an hour.

In Conclusion

When visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park with dogs, if you are ok with basic kennels for your dogs you can all go in together. However if you’d prefer not to use the kennel service and are ok visiting the Caverns by yourself, our itinerary worked well for us hiking separately. Moral of the story, we make things work however we need to to visit non-dog friendly National Parks with our pups!

Check out our dog-friendly travel posts for more trip ideas and tips.