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Grab your camera and jump in the jeep… we’re going exploring! Even though there’s no treasure to be found, there’s plenty to discover beneath the surface in the many miles of underground caves across our country.
And don’t fret. You don’t have to be the next Marco Polo to be able to explore an ancient cave. Adventure is still within your reach. There are lots of, flush with history and impressive geologic features, right here in the United States.
American caves and caverns are far from the dark and creepy interiors of the Earth that you might have imagined. In fact, if anything, these stateside caves prove that some of our country’s most stunning relics have been hiding underneath the ground all this time.
We’ve gathered the 5 most magical caves from sea to shining sea. Get ready for an adventure!
The Luray Caverns in Luray, Virginia, is the most extensive set of caverns in the eastern part of the United States. They feature some of our country’s best-folded stone formations, all made of translucent calcite.
Visitors should also make sure to check out the cave’s largest lake, which forms a dazzling optical illusion and adds a certain mystifying quality to the formations that are looming from above.
Other area attractions in the area worth seeing include the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum, the Luray Valley Museum, and Toy Town Junction, where you can learn more about Luray’s exciting past.
This canyon in Page, Arizona, is one of the most awe-inspiring caves in the world. It’s split into “The Crack” and “The Corkscrew.” It was created thousands of years ago by the erosion of Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding.
If you’re looking for the ideal time to see this canyon, summer is your best bet. This is when the natural light hits its walls at just the right angle to create a warm glow across it.
What you should know: This national treasure can only be accessed via guided tours, which can be hiking-intensive, photography-based, or more in-depth, depending on the time of year and flood possibility.
After trekking through the canyon, you can remain absorbed by the remarkable scenery by booking a room at the Lake Powell Resort, where you can take a dinner cruise, boat tour, or even rent a powerboat to explore the area around the resort.
This one is actually an entire cave system and not just a singular cave. Mammoth Cave National Park is home to over 400 miles of passageways, the world’s most well-known cave system.
It’s located within the Green River valley, and its winding chambers, pools, and limestone labyrinths are equally beautiful AND creepy. Ten different types of tours allow visitors to explore the illustrated, historical, and dripstone areas.
The cave complex is exceptionally well known for its natural entrance and Gothic Avenue, a passageway that’s filled with historic stone monuments and signatures from its 19th-century visitors. Tours for the area can be reserved in advance online.
These caverns, located in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico, were once the coastline for an inland sea.
And just about 250 million years later, the Carlsbad Caverns are what remains of this bygone coastline, with its eroded Permian reef forming spectacular structures that attract thousands of tourists yearly.
The park even offers bat flight viewing programs and starry night sky parties throughout the year.
Don’t know where to stay? Lodged in a historic building in downtown Carlsbad, the Trinity Hotel is a great place to sleep, eat, and drink wine after a long day of trekking through caves.
You can view indigenous animals roaming the plains above ground, but below, the Wind Cave’s remarkable geology dazzles travelers keen on taking the plunge underneath the surface.
The Wind Cave is notably renowned for its speleothems, or cave formations, developed by calcium deposits as a byproduct of limestone water erosion. The most famous speleothem in this location is boxwork, which presents itself in a honeycomb pattern.
This cave is home to the most intricate and widespread formations of boxwork in the world. Many of them can be seen through the park ranger guided tours available all year round.
There are many other stunning caves and caverns you can find in the US, we only mentioned a few of our favorites. Be sure to leave a comment to let us know if you’ve been to any of these caves before and what you thought of them.
And don’t forget to check out some of our other articles with some of the most beautiful places to see in our country. We especially love: 5 Ways to Plan a Last-Minute Getaway Without Going Broke
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