~ Top 10 Beautiful Caves and Caverns in the U.S. ~

[MysteRy]

Top 10 Beautiful Caves and Caverns in the U.S.


1. Carlsbad Cavern National Park, New Mexico   



Hidden in New Mexicos Guadalupe Mountains is Carlsbad Cavern National Park, which has some of the most interesting caves in America, two of which are historically registered. There are two ways to enter the biggest attraction in the park, which is the Carlsbad Tavern, and they are either by hiking in on your own via the natural cave entrance or by going in with a guide, who can even take you to an elevator that will bring you down 750 feet to an underground dining area. The cave chamber is nearly 4000 feet in length and over 650 feet wide. Natural stalactites hang from the roof of the cave 225 feet above the heads of visitors that formed millions of years ago. The open limestone chamber in the cave is the 3rd largest in the United States and qualifies as the 7th largest on earth. Almost one third of the park is preserved, so it will keep its natural luster for years to come.

[MysteRy]

2. Lost Sea Caverns, Sweetwater, Tennessee   



A cavern system that not many people know exists in its home state is the Lost Sea Caverns, which is hidden in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. It is the place where you can find the largest underground lake in America; the lake covers about 4.5 acres of surface area and it is the second biggest in the world. It may be even larger, as no one has ever explored the entire lake. In the 1970s a team of spelunkers swam a portion of the lake and found several underwater caverns with no air pockets. It is believed that there may be more of these that will lead deeper underground. Today, visitors can take a boat ride around the underground lake and learn some of the caves history while they explore. The 1940s held much influence on the cave system - during that time there was a nightclub on the lake and even a mushroom farm in the dry areas.

[MysteRy]

3. Luray Caverns, Virginia   



Just near Luray, Virginia travelers will stumble upon the Luray Caverns, which are situated in the Appalachian Mountains. Since its discovery in 1878 the cave has attracted many visitors and even to this day it receives up to 500,000 guests a year. The cave is most famous for its natural organ. A musical engineer carefully hollowed out some of the stalactite formations and attached rubber mallets that strike the well-tuned stalactites to make xylophone-like sounds. The natural instrument is in the Guinness book of world records as the largest natural music instrument in the world. The organ covers over 3.5 acres and is played to this day as visitors explore the caverns. Luray Caverns also have an underground lake called Dream Lake and it has some mirror lakes that create such an illusion as if the roof of the cave is the bottom. For someone who doesnt know there is a lake there, they cannot tell the difference.

[MysteRy]

4. Caverns of Sonora, Texas   



The Caverns of Sonora are described by many as the most beautiful caves in the world. The natural beauty of the cave system has been recognized by the national register as a natural landmark. One area of the caves that is packed tightly with helictites is known as the "snake pit”, not because there are snakes but because of its density of formations. The cave has been known of since the early 1900s by locals - or, at least the first quarter mile was. The rest of the caves seven miles were discovered in the 1950s by some cavers that were given permission from the landowner to explore the cave. The landowners family still owns and operates tours of the cave to this day and since the seven miles of the cave have been discovered there has been a two-mile trail made inside the cave. Visitors can follow the trail where they will discover a myriad of natural formations including the butterfly formation.

[MysteRy]

5. Moaning Cavern, California   



Located in the heart of Californias Gold Country is the Moaning Cavern, a cavern so deep the Statue of Liberty can stand up in the tunnel that brings visitors down. The cave was first discovered by gold miners in the 1850s but was abandoned due to lack of natural resources. It gets its name by dripping water in the cave that falls into bottle-shaped, hollow formations. The sound created from the water dropping into the formations makes a guttural echo that reverberates throughout the cave. According to the early visitors the sound sounded like someone moaning in the distance and that is how the name came to be. The cave hosts tours and even has some spots for advanced cavers looking to experience some spelunking and rappelling. Moaning cavern is also where some of the oldest human remains have been found in the United States.

[MysteRy]

6. Shenandoah Caverns, Virginia   



The Shenandoah Caverns are quite small compared to other commercial cave systems but that is a plus because the formation of the cave is just as spectacular and they dont have huge crowds waiting to take their turns in the cave. Tours are available of the cave with the longest tour being a one-mile stretch of underground trail. The caves have been known for decades by the Iroquois Indians before the Europeans arrived to the Americas, but it wasnt until the 1920s that the caves were opened to the public for tourism purposes. The caverns are lighted and have many different formations that are named. When you visit the cave, you may want to bring a coat as the cave maintains a year-round temperature of 54 degrees. The cave is also one of the most accessible caves in Virginia as it can accommodate those in wheelchairs, and it is one of the only caves in the state that has elevator access.

[MysteRy]

7. Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky   



Mammoth Cave is located in its namesake national park, which is in Kentucky. It is the longest cave known in the world. The cave is remarkable for having over 390 of discovered passageways; someone could live in the cave and not even be known about for a long time because it is so vast. Each year the size of the cave grows as miles of new passageways are discovered as the cave is explored by the park service. Most of the cave is made of limestone with a layer of sandstone on top, making it a strongly composed and stable system. Another unique aspect of the cave is that deep down in the hidden recesses of water lives an endangered shrimp, which is actually albino and blind from years of evolution in the pitch black cave. The cave hosts several different tours for all ages and even has some more wild tours that require crawling through muddy tunnels and climbing some steep walls to get to adjoining rooms.

[MysteRy]

8. Ohio Caverns, Ohio   



Just about 30 miles due south of Dayton, Ohio, travelers can stop by the Ohio Caverns. The beautiful caverns are home to giant white crystal formations unlike any other in the state. It is also home to several tours that can be taken to see the 3.5 miles of the cave, although the most commonly taken tour is one that only goes for about one mile. The cave was excavated in the early 1930s by the Reams family, who purchased the land. When the three-year excavation was complete there was another quarter mile that was a part of the tour but it was ravaged by the early visitors and is now blocked off. The cave also had a horse drawn elevator at one point during the dig too, which is now blocked off by a concrete wall to maintain visitors safety as it makes a 100-foot drop straight down.

[MysteRy]

9. Kartchner Caverns State Park, Arizona   



Kartchner Caverns State Park is one of Arizonas best places to see the natural beauty of a million year-old cave. The cave system is meticulously preserved by the park service with the aim of retaining the untouched natural beauty of the cave system. The state actually spent 28 million on high-tech equipment to help preserve the cave that includes airlock doors and misting machines. The cave cannot be toured during the summer months due to its annual nesting of cave bats; this usually occurs from April to October each year. There are several rooms in the cave too, one of the most unique being the "Throne Room”. In this special room visitors will get to see the worlds longest soda straw stalactites, the biggest being nearly 21 feet. In the room you will also see the worlds largest formation of brushite moonmilk. The unique cave has many one-of-a-kind features and formations throughout its underground labyrinth.

[MysteRy]

10. Blanchard Springs Caverns, Arkansas   



Blanchard Springs Caverns are a three-level cave system in the Ozark National Park in Arkansas, two of the caves levels are publically open for touring and the other is under preservation. Adventurers will find their place in the cave also, as there is a tour that will bring visitors with a taste for the wild throughout undeveloped regions of the cave, where crawling through mud-covered tunnels and rappelling down steep cliff-like walls is part of the experience. The cave is still alive and growing since its birth nearly 350 million years ago; this is mainly due to the care that is observed by its guests and the forest service. In 1955, cave explorers were searching the cave for artifacts and trying to get a grasp on how big the cave actually was by following paths and crawl holes and the group discovered a 1,000 year-old Indian skeleton, proving that the cave has been known for a very long time and may even contain even more remains, possibly even prehistoric in nature.