Fisher Cave, Meramec State Park, Missouri: A Cave Review

Fisher Cave is located in Meramec State Park, Missouri. Meramec State Park is located in central Missouri, sixty miles outside of St. Louis. Meramec State Park has lots of outdoor amenities including camping, fishing, and hiking but one of my favorite features of the park is Fisher Cave.

Meramec State Park offers guided tours through Fisher Cave. The Cave is opened seasonal with varying hours so it is best to check out the state parks' official website at http://www.mostateparks.com/meramec/cave.htm for information tour times. The cost is very reasonable at $6.00 for adults and free for children under five. $6.00 is an excellent price because most cave tours that I have been on range from $15 to $20. The park only accepts reservations for large groups. All other guests are a first-come first-serve basis so it is best to show up to the cave entrance before the tour time to secure your spot in the tour. The tour guide does limit the tour size group. Meramec State Park's website doesn't list the maximum group size but our guide turned people away after twenty people bought tickets.

Fisher cave has an outdoor entrance located near one of Meramec State Park's campsites. The cave has a small parking lot and some outdoor seating. The large cave entrance is guarded by a locked metal gate. The cave does have limited interior lighting so our guide passed out big heavy flashlights. My group was prepared with our own lightweight flashlights. We had a very informative tour guide who was a wealth of information. She did warn everyone to bring jackets because the cave was around 54 degrees. After the hot July weather, we welcomed the coldness and never required jackets, which was good since we didn't have any with us.

Fisher Cave is a spectacular cave and after numerous tours of different Missouri Caves, I can say Fisher Cave is one of the best Missouri has to offer. The tour starts in the big cave entrance room where the tour guide gives the normal spiel of please don't touch anything and stay on the path. The tour starts on a narrow raised concrete path. The path was extremely wet due to condensation from the drastic change in temperature. I only mention this because I slipped off the path several times. I always wear sneakers on cave tours and my white sneakers were very orange after the tour. I don't recommend wearing flip flops on this cave tour or any cave tour.

The tour then proceeds through numerous rooms full of stalactites, calcite deposits, soda straws, and many other natural cave formations. The cave even has preserved bear claw marks along one pathway. Each room is amazing and provides plenty of great pictures for any photographer. My sister who loves to take pictures took over 250 pictures. That might be a bit excessive but there are plenty of beautiful cave formations to view and snap photos of.

The tour lasted for about an hour with the tour guide stopping and talking a lot. The walking is not too strenuous and there aren't many stairs. There are several narrow pathways and one section where guests have to walk hunched down to get through to the next room. Overall Fisher cave is a very easy and spectacular tour.