Visitation · National Park

Carlsbad Caverns National Park visitation by month and year

July is the busiest month at Carlsbad Caverns, when the average temperature nearby is 80 degrees. January is the quietest, and the average temperature then is 45 degrees. July runs about 2.6 times the visits of January. The crowd arrives with the warm weather and leaves with it. Annual visits fell 6.8 percent, from 440,691 in 2019 to 410,778 in 2025.

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Visits by month, with temperature and precipitation

Bars are the average recreation visits in each month over 2021 to 2025. The line is the average temperature at Carlsbad Caverns, 7 miles from the park's reference point at 4,435 feet, station USC00291480 in the NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals. The lower panel is monthly rain and snow from the same station, also 1991 to 2020 averages.

Annual visits, 1979 to 2025

Recreation visits per calendar year. A year with a missing month is left blank rather than estimated.

The last ten years

Year	Recreation visits	Change on prior year
2025	410,778	-10.8%
2024	460,474	+16.8%
2023	394,121	+0.8%
2022	390,932	+11.9%
2021	349,244	+90.0%
2020	183,835	-58.3%
2019	440,691	-5.4%
2018	465,912	-10.4%
2017	520,026	+11.4%
2016	466,773	+4.7%

Visitation at other parks

White Sands National Park Petroglyph National Monument Great Smoky Mountains National Park Zion National Park

Compare Carlsbad Caverns with Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Source: NPS Visitor Use Statistics, monthly recreation visits, as compiled for Publicopia Labs. A year is shown only when all twelve months were reported. Temperature, precipitation and snowfall normals are the 1991 to 2020 monthly averages published by NOAA NCEI for station USC00291480, 4,435 feet above sea level. Data refreshed October 14, 2026.