These Midwest Cave Tours Explore Cool Rock Formations and Intriguing History

Caves all over the Midwest offer a short journey to another world filled with vast underground chambers made millions of years ago when groundwater seeped through limestone. These resulting mineral formations, unique ecosystems and atmospheres can instantly knock 30 or 40 degrees off a summer afternoon—and some have even served as stops on the Underground Railroad or cooled down pioneers as they made their way out West.

Our favorite caverns promise intriguing history and natural beauty, plus creative ways to tour them: in boats, perhaps, or by the flickering light of a candle. Explorers of all abilities can find a way to go caving that (dare we say it?) really rocks.

Bear Cave, Buchanan, Michigan

The only natural cavern in the Great Lakes region, Bear Cave—located at Bear Cave RV Resort—has a fascinating history as both a stop on the Underground Railroad and a hiding spot for money stolen in the 1875 Ohio bank heist (which later inspired the 1903 silent film, The Great Train Robbery).

"Today, visitors can tour the cave, explore nearby hiking trails, and take in nearby waterfalls," says Dave Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan. Lorenz recommends staying the night at Bear Cave RV Resort. "After exploring the 25,000-year-old cave with its 40-foot winding stairway, you can explore all the surrounding area has to offer." The resort offers RV hookups, tent sites and cabin rentals, as well as volleyball, kids' activities, hiking trails, boat rentals and more.

Twin Caves at Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, Indiana

During a 20-minute boat tour through Twin Caves, visitors cruise 600 feet into the caverns as endangered Northern blind cavefish make tiny ripples in the water below and bats soar overhead. Deep inside the cave, the guide turns off all lights, so everyone can experience the effect of total darkness.

Twin Caves is one of many caverns and other activities inside Spring Mill State Park. At the park's Pioneer Village, guests can explore historic buildings, talk with a blacksmith, and see a three-story limestone grist mill that still runs on cool water coming from an underground stream. The mill's top two floors contain museum exhibits of pioneer tools, clothes and schoolbooks, reminders of when this tiny town was one of the few stops on a popular stagecoach route.

Mark Twain Cave Complex, Hannibal, Missouri

Made famous by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, this complex was the childhood haunt of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, most famously known as Mark Twain. One hundred and seventy years later, guests can still see where Clemens signed his name on the rock walls. Visitors' options include an easy one-hour history tour and a three-hour adventure tour navigating tight passageways and scaling craggy rock walls. Afterward, visit the cave's winery for sips and live music or watch Mark Twain Live, an hour-long one-man show highlighting the author's speeches and achievements.

Cave of the Mounds, Blue Mounds, Wisconsin

At Cave of the Mounds, daily, year-round tours immerse visitors in a rich collection of colorful crystal formations like stalactites, stalagmites, columns, cave bacon and flowstone. "We have almost every type of formation, making us the jewel box of America's show caves," says Tate Phillip, communications manager. Rent a black light to see the rocks glow, a rare phenomenon made possible by the blending of calcite and manganese.

Ohio Caverns, West Liberty, Ohio

Billed as America's most colorful cavern, these caves hide under the picturesque Ohio countryside. Formations dazzle in blue, orange and white, but the star of all these rocks is the brilliant white Crystal King, the state's largest stalactite measuring 5 feet long and weighing 400 pounds. Guests can take the history tour to learn how the cave was first discovered or the natural wonders tour to explore rooms like Fantasyland and Palace of the Gods.

Wind Cave, Hot Springs, South Dakota

President Theodore Roosevelt founded Wind Cave National Park in 1903, named for the winds blowing through its natural entrance. It's the first cave in the world to receive national park status. Rangers lead tours of this natural Black Hills wonder containing 95 percent of the world's known boxwork formations, honeycomb-like structures that form between rocks. Candlelight tours venture into remote areas of the cave showing very little signs of human influence; join the Garden of Eden Cave Tour to see spectacular rock formations or the Natural Entrance Cave Tour to feel its namesake winds.

Squire Boone Caverns, Mauckport, Indiana

Squire Boone, a famous frontiersman along with his brother Daniel, discovered this cave on his property in 1790; he was so fond of it, he chose to be buried here. His original grave is the final stop on the tour, though the remains have been relocated to an inaccessible region of the caverns to save them from grave robbers. Stalactites, cave bacon, flowstone, a 73-step spiral staircase, and a 15-foot underground waterfall are just some of the tour highlights. Above ground, visitors can also see Squire Boone's working mill, explore a pioneer village, zipline across the area's forest and feed goats and pigs in the squire's barnyard.

Fantastic Caverns, Springfield, Missouri

Enjoy hour-long rides on Jeep-pulled trams passing through brightly lit Fantastic Caverns, past curtains of stone and near ponds inhabited by Ozarks-only creatures, like blind grotto salamanders. Discovered in 1862 by a farmer whose dog crawled through an opening in the hillside, the cave is one of more than 7,300 in Missouri. It was used as a speakeasy during the Prohibition years, and hosted live music concerts in the 1950s and 1960s. The first ride-through tour was given in 1962; that's now the only way visitors can see the caverns, helping protect the fragile formations.