HAve you ever visited a Cavern?

I am scared shitless of caverns and caves.

I LOVE Luray Caverns. My mom still lives in VA and we visit those caverns every few years.

Been to Carlsbad Caverns four times. Love it.

Of all the caverns I've been too, Luray has the most beautiful rock formations. It's not as big as some, but it's gorgeous.

Baltimorean here and my favorite school field trips were to Luray. Are there commercial caverns out West?

I went to one last summer in Georgetown, TX right outside of Austin. It was very big.

If you visit a cavern, make sure your body and clothing are very fresh and clean as there isn't any ventilation. There was a fat teen boy on our tour and he stunk up the place with his mildewed clothing and wet-dry-wet stale sweat smell. I probably wouldn't have noticed above ground, but there's nowhere for any smell to go in a cavern.

Gouffre Berger - and it was absolutely terrifying and memorable. I had to train and did it because the guy who was pushing me was a handsome horsehung Savoyard with luminous green-gold eyes.

one summer my job was tour guide in a cave, fun job.

I'm a moderately adventurous person, who's been SCUBA diving with sharks and kayaked around icebergs, so of course I've visited a few caves. Mammoth Caves in Kentucky was the most memorable, and I've been to various other caves and lava tubes around the US. They're very interesting and some are stunningly beautiful, but it's never something I've gotten serious about.

And I NEVER EVER want to get into serious caving! Cave exploration is possibly the most horrible, dangerous, filthy, uncomfortable, life-threatening, miserable, way to experience nature on this planet. There's mud and bats spraying rabies viruses on you and excellent odds of getting stuck or lost a mile underground, which means a horrible lingering death with no hope of rescue. No thanks, I will never visit a cave unless there's a marked route I can walk through.

Usually damp dark and disappointing.

I will never forget my childhood visit to Luray Caverns in the late 1950s when I was a child.

There was some kind of geological blot on a boulder that resembled two sunnyside up eggs! Unforgettable.

RUBY FALLS

THE LOST SEA

As a child I walked through Marvel Cave in Branson,Mo many times.

Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park (eastern Nevada.)

Cumberland caverns twice . Age 10 &12 . Bublegum alley. Takes some nerve for sure

Yes, nightly, dear.

aren't you people scared of them? I am.

R10, most bottoms' anuses are.

My father bought a 100 acre farm near Luray when he retired and became a “gentleman farmer”. He had a cave on his property that spelunkers would ask to access. I was never brave enough. Beautiful area though and it was right on the Shenandoah for rafting.

Mammoth Cave when I was a kid. That area of Kentucky north of Nashville is full of them.

That’s also where they get the water to make Burbon.

R19. My friends and I would have had that thing mapped out and it would have been a great place to play.

I guess it’s just as fun from the window watching the real boys play.

My auntie wanted to take me to Luray Caverns but I'm claustrophobic so I kept saying no. She finally convinced me and we went last October on Columbus Day Weekend. We were in one of the last groups and, because there were so many people, they had guides stationed at each point of interest rather than leading groups, so we were able to take our time. The only time I felt claustrophobic was at the beginning when we were in the crowd listening to the welcome speech. After that, we hung back and let the crowds go ahead and then pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was amazing.

Caves brings out my claustrophobia I can stand outside of one but cannot go in no matter how large.

Lots of caves and caverns in Slovakia. I went to one used for wine storage. Some of those at my link below look gorgeous to explore.

i'm scared of them because they're damp and have bats and are dark.

[quote][R19]. My friends and I would have had that thing mapped out and it would have been a great place to play.

I guess it’s just as fun from the window watching the real boys play.

What are you babbling about? Caves are serious shit and not for “playing”. Are you 12?

you have never experienced black ntil you've been in a cave with all light turned off. i literally had to sit down because i could not maintain any balance.

I grew up near Mammoth Cave, so I have been there often. It's very cool. Like a poster above said, the area is full of caves. When I was younger, I would find an entry in the middle of nowhere and climb in. I look back and wonder what I was thinking. Very dangerous. But, it was awesome when you would squeeze through a narrow space and find a big room.

The guy who didn't explore his dad's cave was a smart kid, exploring wild caves can be extremely dangerous. They can go for miles and it's much easier to get lost than you realize, and if your light goes out you are absolutely fucked. If it rains outside you can find yourself trapped by rising water levels, like those kids in Thailand. Don't fuck around with caves!

I've never found the idea of caves that appealing, although I've visited some of the nicer ones. But I tell you, following that Thai Cave Boys story turned me off cave exploration for life.

Kentucky has limestone bedrock, and is riddled with caves, because limestone is easily eroded by groundwater and will naturally form underground rivers and caverns. So wherever you get limestone you get caves, even the Sierra Nevada mountains, which are made of granite, have a strata of limestone in the foothills, and there's a few tourist caves in the western foothills.

One place I wonder about is Croatia. The famously beautiful "hanging lakes" of Plitvice national part are formed of dissolving and re-forming limestone (travertine), are there caves in that area?

Glow worm caverns in New Zealand. Now THAT’S a cavern.

I've visited many caves but Ruby Falls inside Lookout Mountain (Chattanooga, Tn) is my favorite.

i was going to recommend Rushmore Cave in the Black Hills, but it seems its become more of Knox's Berry Farm with a hole in the ground nearby.

I remember the tour guide at Luray telling the story of finding old bones of a boy--it was likely a Native American boy who found the cave and got lost inside. Without light, it must be pitch black

Caves are beautiful places but it not just getting lost or loosing your footing that can be deadly.

Bats are big carriers of disease. A disease in the Ebola “family” has been found in a cave and infected several people. To this day it’s not advised to go there without proper gear to protect yourself.

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