In 1898 the cave entrance was discoved by 16-year-old, Texas-born cowhand Jim White when he saw Mexican free-tailed bats rising like distance smoke coming out of the ground. The cave is formed in limestone and may be as young as 12-million years old. Jimmy found the entrance where the roof had collapsed a few million years ago and exposed the underground passage. Carlsbad is #15 in the US for longest cave at 32-miles. Carlsbad Caverns National Park was initially created as a National Monument in 1923 and designated by Congress as a National Park in 1930. The United Nations designated the cave a World Heritage Site in 1995 confirming the worldwide significance of this spectacular natural resource.

The images were created by an EOS 5DIII, tripod, Speedlite 580EX II, remote switch, and the EF 16-35L and EF 50 f/1.8 lenses. I checked and there was no limitation to using a tripod and I visited on a foggy (above ground) Tuesday between Christmas and New Years. I was able to take exposures from 5- to 20-seconds at ISO-100. But, if there had been more foot traffic, I probably couldn't have worked with exposures so long. The flash was manually controlled separate from the camera and fired to add a fill light against the long exposure.

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Carlsbad Caverns National Park by Paul Sager, on Flickr
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