campermom

There are so many great caves in the Southwest. Where have you seen a great cave?

What do you think of Inner Space Caverns ( N of Austin)
Natural Bridge Caverns (New Braunfels), Cave without a name ( Boerne), Caverns of Sonora (Sonora), etc.....

Turn Key

Hi, CM! Hope all is well with you.

Have been through "Inner Space" and "Natural Bridge" but it has been way too long ago for me to make much of a comment. Remember them both being nice. We were going to go through "Natural Bridge" again a year or so ago. Between the price seeming a bit high and about 300 school kiddos running around the place, we decided not to.

"Cave Without a Name" is not outstanding but nice and worth the time.

Have you tried "Longhorn Caverns" near Inks Lake State Park? Very nice with good pricing. We've been there a couple of times with our last trip being spring of '06. The drought we'd been going through caused all the pools to have dried up inside the cavern. We've had a lot of rain this year so that should have improved by now. Worth the time no matter what. Particularly like the entrance with the iron work.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/f...nghorn_cavern/

Happy Camping!

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happybooker1

You said 'southwest' so I pick Carlsbad in NM. Awesome & not to be missed. Unfortunately when son & I went the bats were not flying. We will have to make a trip back to see them.

Otherwise I would say Sonora, although I really never 'met' a cave I didn't like.....

PUNCHY

WOW there are about 200 caves in my area (Austin) alone. Ive been to Carlsbad in NM and Devils Den in Ark and a few others in the south. Those places are great and all but very touristy. Whirlpool cave has to be my favorite with its corkscrew entrance and its birthing canal (I havnt made it through the canal YET!). A lot of these caves are locked up but are accesible if you get a hold of the right people. Here is a link to some training our group has done in Whirlpool.
Ive been told Airmans cave also here in Austin is the 7th longest in the states.


http://keyetv.com/local/local_story_230212737.html

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Punchy

LoneStranger

hi yall...

I travel alot and camp alone in forests...i got pictures and also known my campers from around europe and america ... if you want tips for wildlife ...and camping alone... you can always give me a nod

Mean Machine

We've been to Carlasbad, Mammoth and Longhorn. All are terrific in their own special way.
I really liked Mammoth in Kentucky, we ended up on the 'short' tour, about 1-1/2 hours but it was great as there were just 4 people in the group. Really neat.

Carlsbad is amazing, so huge, it's a must see.

Longhorn is so close, right near Inks Lake SP, so you can do it as a day trip while camping.

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Gary
Round Rock, TX

srds

Carlsbad and Mammoth tye for number 1 with us.My daughters is Inner Space, son loves Longhorn until they turn lights off,I never knew his Sponge Bob flashlight was that bright.
srds :cool:
Have Fun

campermom

Well, now we can say we've seen some awesome caves.

Longhorn Cavern is nice. It is drier and smoother than the other caves. $17 for me and the kiddo.
Natural Bridge is prettier. There are more pools and formations. The walls glisten a bit more.
Caverns of Sonora are very pretty. The formations are more intricate, clean and luminous than other caves. The tour is very personalized and the cave walls so close you could touch them, but don't! It was the most expensive $36 for me and the kid.
Carlsbad was awesome because of the sheer size and grandeur. The VC is getting remodeled so the ticket center and gift shops are in trailers. We took the elevator to the bottom and back up. The formations are huge, the ceilings high, paths well maintained, and fees very affordable. $6 for the adult and $3 for audio unit, kids free. I was sad to see the amount of lint on the formations which made them dull and lifeless. We did get a double-header and got to see the bats at night. The theater was large, spaced close enough to see the entrance, but far enough away that you didn't smell the bats. I expected to hear lots of noise when they left but it was almost silent. Pretty cool. They took more than 30 minutes to leave, we got bored before they were all out, and left. We had a long drive ahead of us.

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srds

And if you get a chance see Wonder Cave.

ryndove

I have to say that I like Inner Space the best! hehe, I used to be a tour guide there so we got too see stuff that a normal tourist couldnt. But even so there are a lot of very interesting facts about Inner Space. i.e. Inner Space had 144 different types of species found inside of it due to the 3 massive sink holes. The cool thing about that cave was it was 4 miles of cavern and there was a really good chance that there were many many more rooms. There was a room way off he beatin trail that was litterally "jailed" off from outside cavers due to the fact that there were "soda straws" so long that they made soda straw columns and you could see another room beyond them yet you couldnt get to it do to the fragile state of the columns.

There was always an unspoken rivalry between our guides and Natural Bridge guides, after I matured a little bit I decided to take a couple of my friends there and check it out. I have to say that Natural Bridge was awesome and would probably go as far to say that it was more majestic then ours. Inner Space is neat in its own way, exspecially when it comes to the fault line you can see and the drappery column and the flowing stone of time, not to mention the crater of the moon room. But Natural Bridge had its own intersting facts when it came to geological movement and also there cave formations.

I went on a road trip and visited a lot of caves in the hill country area. Natural Bridge was first and fabulous, we also went to Cave Without A Name which is special in its own time limited way. I didnt care for Longhorn Cavern the least bit. And we by-passed Wonder cave because we heard it was a hole in the ground and didnt have formations which is the principal idea of visiting a cavern.

I have also been to Carlsbad which was pretty neat. The tour guides were a little rude but you cant blame them, they work for the public. Anywho a lot of interesting caverns in our great nation. An interesting thought though, a lot of the cavers that worked with me had mentioned a possibility that Carlsbad connected with Mammoth Caverns. So if you think about that, that would be absolutely astonding if you ask me! Anywho, peace be with y'all! Later

rockhill

I have been to Longhorn, Sonora, Carlsbad and Onyx in Arkansas but not the others. The ones I have been to all have their good points and are different in ways. I think going to all caves that you can would be the "top pick'

almitra

Gonna see Longhorn for the first time when I camp at Inks in May.

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Sandra Loftis trolls
Card Carrying Member of O.A.T.C. (Openly Addicted to Camping)