When it comes to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, visitors are only allowed to carry water when entering the caves. However, one tourist chose to ignore the rules and dropped a bag of Cheetos on the cavern floor. According to a spokesperson for the national park, the person who dropped the bag of Cheetos had a “huge impact” on the New Mexico cave’s ecosystem.

Don’t litter Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico

Readers might think that a bag of Cheetos would have no real impact on the caverns’ ecosystem, but they would be wrong. Only plain water is allowed to be consumed in the huge cavern at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, but recently a careless visitor dropped a bag of Cheetos in the Big Room.

In a recent post on Facebook, the national park stressed that this careless act created a “huge impact” on the cave’s ecosystem.

“At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world-changing,” the park added, writing;

The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi. Cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organize into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Molds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues.

‘Completely avoidable’

According to the Facebook post, rangers spent some 20 minutes carefully removing foreign debris and molds from the surfaces in the cave, explaining that while some of the foreign debris on surfaces in the cave was cave-dwellers, “many of the microbial life and molds are not.”

The park noted that the impact of the Cheetos in the cave was “completely avoidable,” as compared to the fine trails of lint left behind by every visitor, writing:

Great or small we all leave an impact wherever we go. Let us all leave the world a better place than we found it.

According to the national park’s website, eating and drinking anything other than plain water attracts animals into the cavern.

About ‘Leave no trace’ principle in Carlsbad Caverns

The national park later added another post to Facebook as a follow-up to the Cheetos bag incident. They wrote on the importance of the “leave no trace” principle of properly disposing of waste

The post read, “Contrary to popular belief, the cave is NOT a big trash can,” adding that rangers pick up waste left behind every day. The park explained that sometimes the trash can be a gum wrapper or a tissue, both of which include “human waste, spit, or chewing tobacco.

The Carlsbad Caverns National Park urges its visitors to ensure they don’t leave trash in the cavern and to use the designated restrooms.

About the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns National Park

The Big Room, where the Cheetos bag was found is reportedly the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America. According to experts, the cavern was formed when sulfuric acid dissolved limestone, forming the passages in the cave. Meanwhile, the Big Room is accessible via a relatively easy 1.25-mile trail. Just don’t take snacks with you.