CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE DISCOUNT
| CAVERN HOME | VISITOR INFORMATION | CAVERN HISTORY |
|
THE
VALLEY
 The cave is located in the Spruce
Creek valley,
with rocky, wooded ridges embracing fertile farmland,
surrounding the
cave grounds with unparalled natural beauty. The cavern entrance is
nestled in a hillside covered in pine, spruce, maple, walnut, and
locust trees, dripping with fern, ivy, and a wide variety of
wildflowers and shrubs. Indian Caverns overlooks Spruce Creek, which is
full of enormous wild brown and rainbow trout and provides a home for
salamanders, crawfish, turtles, and ducks.The area is teeming with wildlife – whitetailed deer, chipmunks, squirrels, racoons, woodchucks, cottontail rabbits – and, of course, bats (primarily little browns and pipistrelles). The grounds are inhabited by more than forty species of birds as well, including hummingbirds, nuthatches, grosbeaks, finches, orioles, robins, cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, pheasants, screech-owls, turkeys, hawks, and falcons. Scenic Route 45 winds through the valley, following an old Native American trail that connected the Frankstown Path to the Great Shamokin Path, following the banks of Spruce Creek. It remains one of the most scenic routes through the Allegheny Mountain range, whether frosted with snow, bursting with blossom, dense with summer foliage, or ablaze with autumn color. |
|
THE GROUNDS
 The Visitor's Center is based on pueblo-style
buildings from the
southwest and was constructed using the mountain face as a back wall.
In keeping with the eclecticism of an Early Auto Era roadside
attraction,
a photogenic totem pole from the Pacific Northwest and Plains-style
tipi grace the property. The cavern gift shop has a wide selection of merchandise to suit every pocket. We have a range of Native American souvenirs from dreamcatchers to weapon and tool replicas and a variety of gemstone, mineral, and fossil gifts – including an impressive collection of amethyst geodes. The shop includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, jewelry, collectibles, and novelty items, as well as a limited selection of refreshments and snacks. We also have a Panning for Gems activity, enjoyed by young and old alike – with the option of Panning for Arrowheads! Along the bank of Spruce Creek, we have scenic picnic grounds and, by request, an enclosed picnic pavilion. There is also a fish feeding area which draws enormous wild trout. Fish food is available in the gift shop. The creek is a world-reknowned trout stream and anglers are welcome to fish on a catch and release basis for a modest rod fee.  |
|
THE TOUR
 Tours
of the cavern last from sixty to ninety minutes. Each tour is conducted by
an experienced, well-informed guide who
explains the complete history of the cavern and its use since
prehistoric times. Native American artifacts found in the cave, as well
as a tablet of petroglyphs, are on display as part of the tour. More
recent history and folklore connected with the cave are also covered.
In addition, guests learn a bit of geology as the guide points out
various
rock formations and describes how they form.The main attraction, of course, is the cave itself, which displays considerable variety in structure from narrow, winding passages to expansive chambers with towering ceilingss, from rooms divided by huge, angular blocks of breakdown to sculpted walls smoothed by glacial run-off. There's as much variety in the cavern formations, ranging from massive sheets of flowstone to delicate soda straw stalactites, from an intricate rimstone pool to sturdy, ornate columns. A trip through the cave is stimulating fun for visitors of all ages. The tour covers nearly a mile of electrically illuminated splendor. Concrete and gravel walkways (with a few short flights of stairs) enable even senior visitors to tour the cave with ease. The air is pure and invigorating and the cavern temperature is a constant 56º Fahrenheit (13º C) all year. It is recommended that visitors bring a light sweater or jacket and wear comfortable walking shoes. Opening hours and tour times are seasonal. Please check the schedule here for more information. |
|
|
|
|
| ONLINE DISCOUNT | ||
To
answer one frequently asked question, a cave is any underground void
large enough for a human to enter and deep enough to achieve total
darkness; a cavern is any large, natural cave. In terms of showcaves,
both words tend to be used interchangeably.
Indian
Caverns is a "living" cave – the
majority of the dripstone and flowstone formations are still active. This type of formation takes
approximately 120 years to grow a cubic inch. There are
countless speleothems in the cave, including stalactites, stalagmites,
columns, soda straws, cave coral, drapery, popcorn, sawtooth, some
small helectites, a rimstone pool, and the largest sheet of flowstone
in the northeast. There are also numerous formations created by
erosion, including a "musical rock".