Enjoy a Picnic in a Bat Cave With This Tour in New Mexico

Story by Erika Owen

June 2019

If you’re heading to New Mexico this summer — or you’re looking for a reason to take a vacation — make sure and look up Ted Turner Reserves. The luxury hospitality and tour operator brand has a new group of experiences coming this summer, including the Bats and Brews package where you can picnic in a cave while witnessing one of the largest bat migrations in North America.

The Ted Turner Reserves’ Armendaris Ranch will set you up with some craft beer from T or C Brewing (made locally in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico) and a picnic basket from the property’s executive chef and send you off into Armendaris’ nearby bat caves. Once there, you’ll learn all about the beer you’re drinking from a T or C cicerone and a guide will share more information on the bats you’re seeing, as well as the bats’ primary predator, the Swainson’s Hawk, which has developed a very stealthy strategy for catching the bats and eating them mid-flight. Gruesome: yes; interesting: definitely.

If you’re lucky, you may catch sight of some of the other local wildlife on your way to the caves. Bison, pronghorn, mule deer, oryx, javelina, mountain lions, and desert bighorn sheep all call Armendaris Ranch’s 360,000 acres of land home.

There are only three days you’ll be able to catch this experience — June 22, July 20, and August 17 — so plan accordingly. The Bats and Brews package comes as two options: a two-night stay or a three-night stay. Prices for a two-night stay range from $532 to $1080 while a three-night stay will cost you between $650 and $1470, depending on the accommodation you choose.