Marmot Adventures

An Audience with the King
by Stormy on June 29, 2005

One of the most beautiful tours at Carlsbad Caverns is the King's Palace tour.

It turns out that back in the olden days the King's Palace tour was a self-guided tour, but park rangers discovered that a lot of the tourists would go off the trail and damage formations, sometimes accidentally, some times deliberately. The King's Palace tour is about a mile long. There is a lot of up and down to the trail, but most of the time you forget the elevation changes because of the beauty of the cave. There are just four rooms covered in the tour, but they are huge rooms, the biggest one being the King's Chamber. This part of the cave is also the lowest portion of the cave open to the public at 830 feet below the desert surface. There is a lot of history to this section of the cave, including the filming of the original "Journey to the Center of the Earth". The tour is an hour and a half long and well worth the time it takes. The King's Palace is an extremely decorated area, so make sure you have plenty of film and flash batteries. The rooms are huge, so a good flash is pretty important.

You are here and that's the rest of the cave.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

The trail to King's Palace.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

You go down along very decorated passages.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

Amazing sites are all around you.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

The trail down started somewhere up there.
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

The vastness of King's Chamber made me pull out a bigger flash.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

The King's Chamber is a huge room with an artificially level floor and a well decorated ceiling.
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

The tour group sits on benches along the edge of the room for the presentation on the history and significance of King's Palace.
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

The Royal Court watches the tourists as they pass by.
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

A good flash and a zoom are great, but some days I just wish I could get closer!
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

You can pay someone to put acoustic texture on your ceiling, but not like this!
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

This is a section of passage between the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber where the ceiling was tremendously vandalized in the past. New formations are now growing here!
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

A forest of stalactites and columns.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

You're looking straight up. Yep, it's awesome. Wide angle lens and an extra strong flash.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

This is sixty feet up. And the stalactites are about ten feet long.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

The path can get narrow at times, but it's a beautiful view.
(taken by Jennifer on June 29, 2005)

Looking at stalagmites from up above.
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

A forest of formations.
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

This is a picture with ambient lighting and no flash.
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

The King's Palace tour is well worth the effort!
(taken by Max on June 29, 2005)

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