Indiana caverns and caves to check out for your summer spelunking adventure
Good news for Hoosiers with an adventurous streak: Your next spelunking expedition isn’t far away.
Indiana has plenty to offer for underground exploration. Check out these close-by caverns for an exciting experience without a ton of travel time.
Marengo Cave
400 E. State Road 64, Marengo; marengocave.com
Billed as Indiana's most-visited natural attraction, Marengo Cave offers much more than just a cave to explore. In addition to underground walking, wading, crouching and crawling tours, visitors can race go karts, play mini golf, navigate the mega maze and more. But for those interested in the main event, Marengo Cave offers a variety of ways to experience the journey. Grab your friends and explore together on group tours or go it alone on specialized solo climbs, and check for discounts and deals on select days.
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Blue Spring Caverns
1459 Blue Spring Cavern Road, Bedford; bluespringcaverns.com
This Bedford destination takes you by way of water through America’s greatest voyage underground. The country’s longest navigable underground river runs through Blue Spring Caverns, which visitors can experience on a boat or in a kayak. Above ground, explorers can mine for gemstones, hike the area’s trails, plan a picnic and more.
Indiana Caverns
1267 Green Acres Drive SW, Corydon; indianacaverns.com
Catch a glimpse of history in the Indiana Caverns, where archaeologists and other explorers excavated bones from the Ice Age. Tours take visitors more than 110 feet underground and guide them through water and on foot through the cave. But the cave’s not all – Indiana Caverns also offers escape rooms, ziplining, kids caves and other activities across the grounds.
More: Indiana Caverns no longer a deep secret
Squire Boone Caverns
100 Squire Boone Road, Mauckport; squireboonecaverns.com
Known as a living cavern, Squire Boone contains rushing streams that carry more than a million gallons of water and the largest rimstone dams open to the public in the country. The caves house stalactites, stalagmites and other fascinating rock formations, and visitors can navigate them on foot. Also open are a candy shop, a zipline and a barnyard with goats, pigs, cats and more.
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Spring Mill State Park Caves
3333 State Road 60 E., Mitchell; on.in.gov/springmill
This state park in Mitchell has a host of caves to explore. From the Donaldson Cave to the Bronson Cave to the matching Twin Caves, navigate all Spring Mill State Park as to offer by boat or on foot. You might spot a blind Hoosier cavefish or other aquatic life swimming in the streams, which stay 54 degrees year-round. Visitors must register in advance and can tour in groups or go solo. Other attractions at the state park include hiking trails, a pioneer village with restored historic buildings and a memorial and museum honoring Mitchell native Gus Grissom, the second American in space and one of three astronauts who died during Apollo I testing.
Wyandotte Caves
7315 S. Wyandotte Cave Road, Leavenworth; https://bit.ly/3DnxMZe
Big, Little or both – take everything in at the Wyandotte Caves State Recreation Area, which recently reopened for tours. Catch rare rock formations and the underground "Monument Mountain" in the mile-and-a-half trip down Big Wyandotte, or keep it smaller on the half-hour tour of Little Wyandotte. Campsites at the nearby O'Bannon Woods State Park are available for an overnight stay, and tours are open every day of the week. Better book fast, though: Big Wyandotte will close for tours after Labor Day Weekend, and Little Wyandotte is only open through October.
Contact Pulliam Fellow Heather Bushman at HBushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana caverns and caves to explore this summer
