Watch stone grow. Discover stalactites, stalagmites, columns, soda straws, cave pearls, flowstone, and other formations built patiently by water.
Can You Read Nature? · National Parks
Descend into wonder. A hidden world waits below.
Explore Carlsbad Caverns through lyrical storytelling, real cave science, and museum-quality artwork created for curious families.
Ages 5–14+Family nature bookArt by Cassian Grove
Read before you go see ten times more!
Hardcover
Hardcover + free ebook
$29.95Includes instant-download ebook
- Free ebook included with hardcover
- A nature book for your Carlsbad Caverns adventure
- Original art that makes cave science memorable
- $1 to Children and Nature Network
Ebook
The nature book you can take anywhere
$12.95instant download
- Your perfect park companion, see 10x more
- Kinder to the planet, nothing in a landfill
- Cave formations and wildlife shine on a screen
- $1 to Children and Nature Network
Instant deliveryEbook delivered by email
Free shippingOrders over $40
Secure checkoutPowered by Shopify
Gives back$1 supports nature
Wear the wonder
Bring the caverns to light—and wear the wonder.
Pair the hardcover nature book with the matching Carlsbad Caverns shirt for a gift that keeps the underground adventure close long after the final page.
Choose your shirt option before adding both items to your cart.
Look closer
Every chamber reveals a world shaped one drop at a time.
Meet life in the darkness. Follow Brazilian free-tailed bats, cave crickets, blind shrimp, swallows, and scientists through a delicate underground ecosystem.
Meet the artist
Cassian Grove
Self-taught illustrator and visual storyteller
“Bats and bugs need their time in the limelight, too!”
As an autodidact (self-taught) artist, I'm always eager to learn how to draw new subjects, and this was no exception. In my previous work, I've mostly focused on character-centric art with minimalist backgrounds, so l had to develop my style in order to capture the beauty and complexity of Carlsbad Caverns.
I did a lot of research to find reference images of the caverns and the animals that live in them, and focused on my lighting and texture techniques to evoke the atmosphere and blend real places and animals with my cartoonish style. It's always a good idea to find references when drawing new things before you stylize them—it pays to know the rules before you break them!
With Carlsbad Caverns, I hope to share my interest in natural features with future generations, and draw attention to the places and animals that often get overlooked because they have a reputation for being "creepy." Bats and bugs need their time in the limelight, too!
Cassian’s illustrations shine a light on natural features and cave creatures that are too often overlooked.
About this book
What is inside
Explore Carlsbad Caverns’ ancient reef origins, spectacular cave formations, underground pools, bats and other cave life, ranger adventures, climate challenges, conservation, and ten must-see experiences.
About the author
Narrated by Neil Rosen, children’s book author and founder of WildStork. Neil writes every book as an invitation to look closer, stay longer, and discover what families miss when they move too fast.
Reading level
Ages 5 to 14. Designed for the whole family, with lyrical storytelling and real science to share together.