CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK, N.M. | The travel editor felt a little silly.</p><p>He was wearing brown cotton gloves and a white helmet with a little LED light on the front. Kevin and Brooke, the guides, wore helmets, too. So did Kathy and Bob and two other people in the dark cave about 750 feet below the Chihuahuan Desert. They were all about to embark on a Big Adventure.</p><p>"Is anybody here claustrophobic or afraid of tight, dark places?" Kevin wanted to know.</p><p>The travel editor began to feel a little rumbly in his tumbly about all that, but he didn&#8217;t say anything. Nobody else said anything either.</p><p>And so off they marched, into the hole known as the Lower Cave, which is under another, bigger hole that people call the Big Room.</p><p>The Lower Cave has lots of rules, Kevin said. Like "don&#8217;t touch the cave" with your bare hands. That&#8217;s what the gloves were for.</p><p>Orange tape lined both sides of a trail that led into the cave, and the travel editor and Kathy and Bob and the others were told they should stay inside the lines. Just like coloring.</p><p>"Oh, bother," the travel editor thought. He wasn&#8217;t very good at coloring when he was a little boy.</p><p>Sometimes, Kevin said, he would ask everyone to "step around" or "step over" a piece of red and white tape because there might be a hole or something delicate that might be damaged if anyone stepped on it. The travel editor and the other Cave Explorers practiced by planting their left foot just before the red and white tape, then stepping over it with the right.</p><p>And most important, Kevin said, the entrance to the Lower Cave is a secret. He asked everyone to promise that they wouldn&#8217;t tell where it is. Everyone promised.</p><p>Then Kevin grabbed a knotted rope and began walking backward down a little hill. Everyone followed. It was a little like rappelling, but easier.</p><p>Then they climbed down three ladders. When everybody got down, Kevin began walking along the trail. It got darker and darker, but the lights on the helmets helped show the way.</p><p>"Step around," Kevin told Kathy when he saw a piece of red and white tape. "Step around," she told the travel editor, who told Bob. And so on. It was kind of like playing "telephone" in grade school.</p><p>For three hours or so the Cave Explorers descended about 90 more feet and learned about all kinds of cave formations, like stalagmites (the ones that rise from the floor) and stalactites (which hang from the ceiling).</p><p>They learned that American Indians had explored the cave for more than 1,000 years before a 16-year-old named Jim White found it in 1898. Jim had only a third-grade education and referred to the formations as "sticky-uppers" and "hangy-downers." A lot of people didn&#8217;t believe Jim&#8217;s stories about the cave until photographers proved he was telling the truth. Then the place became famous.</p><p>Kevin told the Explorers about a part of the cave called the Rookery, where the floor is covered with tiny formations that look like marbles. They&#8217;re called cave pearls, he said, and a lot of them were taken away by early explorers, who didn&#8217;t know any better. Some coffee cans full of the cave pearls were left behind.</p><p>Those early explorers depended on matches to light their way, Kevin said. Some of the matches were dropped and are still lying on the ground. They&#8217;re part of cave history now and stay there.</p><p>Then Kevin asked a funny question. "So is everybody up for a little crawling?"</p><p>The travel editor wasn&#8217;t so sure he thought that was funny. But he didn&#8217;t want to spoil everyone else&#8217;s fun so he didn&#8217;t say anything.