Much of the route is wheel chair accessible. A good summer's visit to the caverns ends with the bat flight. Nightly, June through September, visitors gather in the stone amphitheater overlooking the natural entrance. At dusk, the first darting shadows signal the bats' departure on their nightly search for food. The trickle grows into a steady stream.
Bats continue to spill out well into the night.
The bats return at sunrise, usually without human observers, except for one August morning each year when Carlsbad gathers before dawn for the annual bat flight breakfast of sausage, scrambled eggs, and steaming coffee. We cluster in the amphitheater, shivering, and listen as the bats swish by, returning from their night's sojourn. In October, they will be off to winter in Mexico, having raised a new generation of young. You'll see no bats during the winter season. First explored extensively by modern man in 1901, Carlsbad Caverns became a national monument in 1923, a national park in 1930.