Tommy Hayfield's Top 10 Cave Stories

I'm from rural Pennsylvania and I found myself surrounded by caves as a kid. Limestone caves that formed over millions of years of water seeping through crevices in surface sediment are all over the Northeast with some of the largest being in Pennsylvania. Many of these caves are commercially successful because the hollowing of the earth inside the caverns--the caverns are actually expanding in most caves--have made passageways that are high enough to walk through or at least to crawl through. In addition to making for very fun hikes--underground hikes--they are often able to provide the visitors with spectacular rock formations created by the same force that created the hollowed out caverns to begin: that force is water infiltration.

Some of the most unusual and spectacular rock formations are formed by water infiltrating through cavern ceilings and forming stalactites and stalagmites. These terms describe formations which look like upside-down or right-side-up icicles that are made of rock. Water seeping through the limestone rock picks up calcium on the way through by way of gravity to its lowest point. The build up of calcium deposits in a cave such as Crystal Cave Park is spectacular.

There are caves that have rooms big enough to hold weddings in. A cave in Pennsylvania actually has banquets in it so you can imagine the size of it.

Penn's Cave in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania is another story entirely; it also has huge rooms and large stalactite and stalagmite formations, but it's entire floor is filled with water from end to end. As a matter of fact the entire tour of Penn's Cave is done by motor boat--motor boats that hold about twenty people. There is a stop inside the cave to let people observe a huge room in what amounts to a beach front inside a wall of rock. The tour of Penn's Cave ends in Lake Nittanee which is a country lake with gently rolling hills and a wildlife zoo nearby.

Southern Pennsylvania has numerous commercial caves which offer tours: there is Lincoln Caverns in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, Woodward Cave which is very near to Penn's Cave, Indian Echo Caverns near Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Crystal Cave Park which I already mentioned.

Tennessee has a great cave near Chattanooga: Raccoon Mountain Caverns. At Raccoon Mountain caverns you can go on extended overnight trips into the cave. This is maybe the best cave in the Northeast for kids who want to explore and hike...Raccon Mountain Caverns actually has huge waterfalls inside the cave.

Click the hyperlinks at the end of this article to go to the website of the different caves I've briefly talked about here. Every cave has different qualities that make it different than the others. The websites associated with each cave explain the admission prices and the schedule of each cave.

Video Presentation Available
To see a video presentation of my cave stories left-click the highlighted portion of this sentence.

Have fun caving!

Resources:
Penn's Cave
Lincoln Caverns
Crystal Cave Park
Woodward Cave
Raccoon Mountain Caverns
Laurel Caverns
Indian Echo Caverns
Top 10 Longest Caves
Top 10 Deepest Caves