From Caverns to Coves - Carlsbad & Your DIY Odyssey

Hey there, Travellers,

Over the last month, we've had submissions for our Travel Photo competition rolling in, which has now closed. All the pictures and stories you submitted have truly brought a smile to our faces here at Jack's, so thank you to everyone who threw their hat in the ring. 

But now we need your help, readers: we have to choose a winner! The Jack's team has cast their discerning eye over all the entries and come up with a shortlist, which you can vote on via the button below

Pick your three favourites by Thursday, 30th July, and we will announce the lucky winner of £/$/€500 towards a flight right here in The Detour and on our socials on Friday, 31st.

To see all the wonderful pictures submitted by your fellow Jack's Travellers and read the stories behind them, take a browse through our Postcard Wall.

Happy travels and safe landings,

Since the first US National Park was established in 1872, sixty-two others have popped up, ranging from cacti-covered corners of the desert to huge swathes of Alaskan wilderness to colorful coral reefs in Florida. 

Each one does things a little differently, and this series is our chance to break them down. Today, we’re meeting Carlsbad Caverns National Park! 

This is one of my favorite US National Parks and one of the most unique. Off in the corner of New Mexico, right across the border from Texas, the Chihuahuan Desert suddenly opens up to a vast network of caves that plunge over 1,000 feet (300 m) into the earth. If the Empire State Building sat at the bottom of the Carlsbad Caverns, the spire would poke up out of the sand like a groundhog.

While the surface is sunny, parched, and dotted with yucca, the caverns are cool, damp, and dark. Leaving the sun-scorched desert behind and descending into their depths feels like crossing a border into another world.

So let’s start spelunking!

Quick Facts about Carlsbad Caverns National Park:

• Established: 1930
• Size: 73 square miles (189.3 km²)
• Location: Southeastern New Mexico
• Closest town: Carlsbad, New Mexico (20 minutes away by car)
• Closest airports: Cavern City Air Terminal is the closest, but Hobbs (HOB) is often cheaper. International visitors should consider landing at ABQ in Albuquerque (4.5 hours drive) or at ELP in El Paso, Texas (2.5 hours drive). 
• Best time to visit: Spring or autumn
• Biggest highlight: The largest single-room cavern in the country, plus bat flights!

Before we make our descent into the stalagmite-covered depths, let’s take a moment to look around up top. The park is located at the northern edge of the Guadalupe Mountains, so the desert lowlands give way to canyons and peaks as you drive towards the visitor center.

There are several trails looping around the surface, including the Guadalupe Ridge Trail, which goes on for 100 miles across rocky desert cliffs and down through Carlsbad’s neighboring park — Guadalupe Mountains NP, across the state line in Texas. We’ll talk more about those mountains when we cover that park, but for now, just know that it’s peaceful, quiet, and covered in pinyons and junipers.

These surface trails can be brutal during the summer months, but fortunately, the caverns aren’t subject to the New Mexico sun and stay a cool 56°F (13°C) no matter the weather above. So now that we’re all dusty and sweaty, let’s get ready to dive down into the earth!

Cavern entry runs on timeslot reservations, which you should book ahead of time at recreation.gov for a nominal fee. Otherwise, you’ll just have to walk into the visitor center and hope the standby line isn’t too bad that day. 

When it’s your turn, there are two ways you can enter the caverns. You can take the elevator and zoom 67 stories down to the bottom in under a minute, or you can take this ramp, appropriately nicknamed “the Road to Hell”:

^{“Walking route into Carlsbad Caverns” by Tim Adams, CC BY 2.0} 

If you’re able, I highly recommend taking the long way and descending into the underworld on foot. It’s a strange feeling to watch the patch of sunlight at the entrance shrink smaller and smaller overhead as you begin to comprehend the sheer size of the space you’re in. This is not a crawl space — you could comfortably fit a Boeing 787 inside the larger chambers.

Fortunately, you don’t worry too much about getting lost. While the caverns are massive and mazelike, all you have to do is follow the paved, rail-lined path that guides you through the darkness like it’s beckoning you into fairyland. 

It’s notoriously difficult to capture the beauty of the caverns with a camera, so as eye-catching as the photos are, know that they’re a fraction of the effect you get in person.

Head deeper and deeper, under dripping stalactites, past bat dens, and over subterranean ponds. A little over a mile later, you’ll reach the bottom, where you can catch up with the folks who took the elevator. Down here, there’s an underground gift shop, a lunchroom, a bathroom, and plenty of places to sit and give your knees a break.

^{“Carlsbad Caverns National Park” by apasciuto, CC BY 2.0} 

From here, you’ll most likely continue down the path to the largest room of the caverns, predictably named the Big Room. For most folks who haven’t booked a guided tour (more about those later), this is the main attraction.

Keep reading to see the Big Room and beyond...

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is out, and it is a hit! 

Haven't seen it yet? I’d recommend you head to the IMAX ASAP. Already seen it? No one is stopping you from going again.

To inspire you to embark on your own odyssey, I’m going to guide you through a legendary adventure that will take in some of the most significant spots Odysseus and his crew encountered along the way. Take this as your starting point — if we dove deep into every location, this article would be nearly as long as Homer’s epic poem!

Potential spoilers ahead. Although the book has been out for a while now…

Fair warning, this itinerary is pretty vast — you can see why it took 10 years for the Greek hero to get home! I’ve split it into two parts, starting with a larger quest encompassing the Aegean Sea and North Africa, and a smaller (yet still sizeable) journey across the West-Central Mediterranean. Pick and choose your stops as you see fit!

Note: Although these historical locations are disputed (if the mythical places exist at all), we’ve gone with the general consensus.

The Great Adventure:

Fans of archaeology and Brad Pitt rejoice, as the beginning of our story takes us to ancient Troy. Catch a flight to Çanakkale in Türkiye and head south to ramble through the ruins of the iconic sacked city. But don't skip the modern port of Çanakkale either, as it features an impressive 40-foot tall replica of a Trojan Horse!

Once you’ve got your antiquity fix, drive north into modern-day Greece to Maroneia, and treat yourself to a little more! Be sure to schedule in plenty of time post-ancient-city wandering for a bottle case of the very wine that Odysseus used to blind the Cyclops (no guarantees that you’ll be able to find the exact same vintage).

Then it’s time to grab a flight to Djerba, Tunisia. While it may have been the delicious (narcotic) lotus fruit that kept Odysseus’ men on the island, it’ll probably be the delicious pastries and truly idyllic beaches that make you never want to leave.

But if you do manage to peel yourself away from the delightfully peaceful North African shores…

A Hero’s (more manageable) Expedition:

The next part of our quest will take you to the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. Fly to Sicily, where the myth-inspiring Cyclopean Isles near Catania serve as a fierce reminder of one-eyed Polyphemus's rage against a deceptive Odysseus (Nobody is to blame for that one). Then, following in the footsteps of the Greek legend, the Aeolian Islands are an excellent stop for some R&R — and only a ferry ride away. 

Before making for the mainland, you’ll head back to Sicily to sample the local cuisine in the town of Trapani. Fortunately, it’s mostly populated by seafood couscous-eating locals nowadays, instead of man-eating giants.

After a full belly (you, not the giants), touch down in Rome with a non-stop flight from Trapani and set sail to Ponza, where Circe’s enchanting grottos await (with no recent reports of sailors being turned into pigs). Then it’s a mainland excursion to Hades’ underworld crib near Cumae.

Once you’re done dicing with death, pack your earplugs and be wary of any siren song, as it's off to the entrancing Li Galli off the Amalfi Coast. These days, it’s less about washed-up sailors lured to their demise and more about influencers lured in by the promise of shimmering, crystal-clear waters.

Keep reading to wrap up the intrepid voyage...

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across the web this week.

• How would you feel if you found out your plane had folding wings? Well, it might be time to get used to the idea, as it could be the future of commercial airliners.
  
  
• According to the Danish authorities, if you encounter a wolf while out and about on your summer adventures, you should do everything your body tells you not to: stand still, make eye contact, and yell. And no, cooing "Who's a good boy?!" does not count as yelling.
  
  
• From islands and microstates to larger nations, these are the countries around the world with more tourists than residents...
  
  
• ...and here's the American town with more nutcrackers than residents, including one far too large for any nut I've ever seen.
  
  
• And finally, what pairs better with whisky than a good lump of cheese on an oatcake? The only answer: a lot more cheese. Thankfully, Scotland has its very own 28-stop Cheese Trail to keep your stomach lined between drams.