Ben left at 7:15 on Saturday for an all-day continuing-education class he needs to keep his license current, which left Harper and me with a free Saturday, a full tank of gas and a pantry that could become a picnic. By 8:45 we were headed east on I-565 with peanut butter sandwiches, a bag of clementines and two water bottles.
Cathedral Caverns State Park is about an hour from our house, past Huntsville and out toward Woodville. Harper had been asking about it since her class did a unit on rocks and caves this winter, and for about two weeks she was a person who said "stalagmite" at dinner on purpose.
The cave
The first thing you see is the entrance, and it's the reason people drive out there. It's enormous, well over 100 feet wide and about 25 feet tall, an open mouth in the hillside that you could drive a truck through. The park calls it one of the largest commercial cave entrances in the world, and standing under it, I believed them. Harper walked in, looked up and said, "Okay. Okay," which is what she says when she's impressed and doesn't want to admit it.
Tours are guided only and leave at set times through the day. We were there in time for the 10 o'clock tour, which ran about an hour and a half on a paved, lit path. Inside, it stays around 60 degrees all year, so we wore light jackets. The guide was funny and patient with a group that included three toddlers and a man who wanted to debate geology.
The big stops are a stalagmite called Goliath, about 45 feet tall and one of the largest in the world, a formation called the Frozen Waterfall and a stretch where the stalagmites crowd together like a little mountain range. Goliath was Harper's favorite, by a lot. She asked the guide eleven questions on the tour. I counted. He answered every one of them like it was the first time anyone had asked, which is a skill I would like for my own meetings.
The picnic, and the math
After the tour we ate at a picnic table near the parking area with the redbuds starting to bloom on the hillside. Sandwiches, clementines and the last of a bag of pretzels from the pantry. Harper ate fast and lobbied for the gift shop. She wanted a geode. I said no. She asked again in a different tone of voice. I said no again, and we split a clementine instead, which is not the same thing, and she told me so.
Here is the math, because the whole reason I'm writing this one down is that it was so cheap. Adult tickets were $20 and Harper's was $9, since kids 5 to 12 get the lower price. Gas for about 120 miles round trip in my RAV4 was around $11. That's $40 for a whole Saturday, and if Ben had come along it would have been about $60. The picnic came from food we already had and would have eaten at home anyway, so I didn't count it. If you want to be strict, add about $6.
It was the cheapest good Saturday we had all spring, and I mean good. We were home by 2:30, Harper read on the couch all afternoon and Ben came home to two people who had already had a day.
When to go: any time, really. The cave is the same temperature in July as it is in March, which makes it a good hot-weather trip too. Spring is nice because the drive is pretty and the picnic tables are comfortable. The tip: check the tour times on the park's page before you leave home and plan to arrive 15 minutes early. The times are set, they can change, and if you miss one, the next one may be a while.
What it cost
- Gas: about $11 (around 120 miles round trip)
- Cave tour: $20 for me, $9 for Harper
- Picnic: from the pantry, about $6 if you insist on counting it
- Gift shop: $0, after a negotiation
Total: $40 out of pocket, or $46 if you count the sandwiches. Either way, Goliath is still 45 feet tall, and Harper still wants that geode.
