

This is the most rigorous tour offered at Colossal Caves.
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Download our FREE Colossal Cave Guide (Unofficial)Ĭolossal Cave Mountain Park Unofficial Homeschool Guide Download Wild Cave Tour If you are planning to take the Ladder Tour, PLEASE make sure to wear the proper shoes, as this trail is difficult with many slippery shoes.
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This tour requires hard hats, headlights, and full finger gloves. The night tour is a bit more expensive but does include a steak dinner with the tour. The Ladder Tour has both daytime and nighttime options, although you can only make reservations for the night tour on Groupon. While exploring, you may even be lucky enough to see some bats. This tour has been available since the 1950’s and is only partially developed, leaving the majority of the cave in its natural state.

You must be physically fit, okay with tight spaces, agile, and be able to climb through difficult areas. Because of the intensity of this tour, you must be 12 or older to join. This is an intense 1 ½ hour tour through windy pathways. This tour is not good for those who cannot take the stairs, as there are 363 of them on the tour.

These formations include stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, boxwok, and helictites. This tour is a great way to view all the rock formations Colossal Caves have to offer. This tour is only half a mile long, and takes about an hour. Along the way, The leader stops and shows off different rocks that express how old this site really is. The Geo-History walk takes you through some of the Ho’hokam history, and what it was like to live in their tribe. In this 1 ½ hour walk, you get to explore ancient archeological sites, and is perfect for families with younger children. Colossal Caves has year-round birds making this a fun event to attend in the early mornings any time of the year. These events last for about 1 ½ hours and all ages are welcome. Throughout the year, Colossal Caves does early morning bird walks for bird lovers. The walk is fairly steady on this tour and is recommended for all ability levels. All of us had to squeeze through some tight spots, including the 13 year old. We took the Classic Cave tour, and two of us (6ft and 6ft2in) had to duck in several places. photo credit: Colossal Cave Mountain Park We saw several bats while on our cave tour. Colossal Cave Mountain Park provides a home or refuge for hundreds of species of animals including bats. After the limestone deteriorates, only the delicate calcite “boxes” remain.ĭraperies: Also called cave bacon, these formations are distinguished by their light and dark colors, which are created by minerals.ĭepending on the season there are plenty of different events to get you and your family engaged in nature and wildlife. Stalagmites: Formations that grow from the ground of the cave.Ĭolumns: Also called stalactons, columns form when stalactites and stalagmites meet in the middle to form pillars.īoxwork: Created when calcite seeps into cracks and crevices in the limestone. They look much like icicles that hang from the side of a building or house. Stalactites: Formations that grow from the ceiling of the cave. My favorite was the boxwork! The “cave bacon” is also pretty fun. You will see many geological formations when visiting Colossal Cave. Several movies have been filmed at Colossal Cave, including Frankenstein Island, Dream Catcher, and Sesame Street Goes Western.Colossal Cave is home to three species of bats.In 1905, a 75-foot tunnel was created in order to mine bat guano.It’s very humid, and the air gets a little thin in spots. Unlike with most other caves, it doesn’t get much cooler when you go underground. Colossal Cave is the largest dry cave in the U.S.Robber’s Cave is a nickname for Colossal Cave because of the bandit legends.The legend of the Pantano bandits is really a mosaic it’s made up of fragments of several occurrences, pieced together over time. No one actually knows the full story, who did it, how much money there really was, or what happened after they came for the money… but it’s an interesting story nonetheless. How’d they get caught? By bragging, of course. The bandits left a trail of blood out of the cave when taking their escape route, but still couldn’t be found. After being abandoned, there is a legend that the cave was home to a bandit gang, the Pantanos, who robbed a Wells Fargo payroll train.
