Texas Caves with Kids

Texas is home to several commercial caves, each offering well-lighted, easy-to-follow trails that every member of the family can enjoy. Here you'll view a quiet world where progress takes place one drop of water at a time. Nearly every cave in Texas is located in the Hill Country, thanks to the region's base of porous limestone, formed from the compressed remains of billions of sea creatures that inhabited the region when it was the floor of an ancient sea.

Boerne

In Boerne (northwest of San Antonio), Cascade Caverns is named for its 90-foot waterfall. Cascade Caverns has welcomed the public since 1932, but it's clear that both man and animals have been using the cave much longer. One of the first visitors over 50,000 years ago was a mastodon whose bones remain in the cave today. Later, ancient Indian tribes held ceremonies within the cave's first room, perhaps fearing to venture beyond the reassuring sunlight near the cave's entrance.

New Braunfels

In New Braunfels, Natural Bridge Caverns is the largest cave in the region. Tours take visitors through enormous rooms that look like the playing fields of prehistoric dinosaurs, rooms with fanciful names like "The Castle of The White Giants." Natural Bridge Caverns takes its name from a rock bridge between two sinkholes, the original entrance to the mouth of the cavern. Though the sinkholes were discovered during the 19th century, there is evidence of much earlier visitors. Bones of a grizzly bear at least 8,000 years old have been discovered, as well as human bones, stone weapons and other Indian artifacts.

San Marcos

In San Marcos, Wonder Cave, located at Wonder World, gives visitors a view of the Balcones Fault from the inside. The cave was produced during an earthquake 30 million years ago. That same quake formed the Balcones Fault, an 1800-mile line separating the western hill country from the flat eastern farmland. Within the cave, boulders lodged in the fissure are reminders of the powerful force of nature.

Georgetown

Just 25 minutes north of Austin lies Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown. The cave was discovered in 1963 when road crews building the highway drilled into one of the large rooms. Soon afterward, the cavern was developed for commercial use, and it remains one of the most accessible caverns due to its roadside location. Remains of Ice Age mastodons, wolves, saber-toothed tigers, and glyptodon (a kind of prehistoric armadillo) have been discovered.

Inner Space is also home to a "mining" area (right) where kids can pan for minerals.

Burnet

In the hill country, Longhorn Cavern State Park, located near Burnet, boasts an extensive history. from prehistoric day through the early years of this century. Confederate soldiers used the cave's main room as a munitions factory. Bat guano from the cave was an ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder. The cave went unused for several decades until the Gay Twenties. A local businessman opened a dance hall in the largest room of the cave, building a wooden dance floor several feet above the limestone. When it proved successful, he then opened a restaurant in the next room, lowering food through a hole in the cavern ceiling. Later, the cave was used for Sunday church services.

Sonora

Texas's westernmost public cave is the Caverns of Sonora, described by some cave experts as the most beautiful in the world. The large cave is especially noted for its unique butterfly-shaped formations as well as its spectacular stalactites and stalagmites.

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