Florida Caverns State Park (Cave series 3)

Florida Caverns is the only major cave that we've been to that has not been in a National Park. This one is a Florida State Park. Over 4 years have passed since our visit to Pinnacles National Park and the cave we explored there. We did visit at least 2 other caves in that time but I have decided to wait with those and probably do a last post in the Cave series to cover some miscellaneous caves last.

We had never heard of Florida Caverns but friends of us that also travel full-time visited there just weeks before we were planning to drive from Florida to Texas, and recommended that we check them out. Since we would pass right by the State Park where the caves are located, and we really like caves we planned it into our itinerary. I'm not sure exactly what it is about caves that we like so much but it always feels like an adventure! Something about leaving the warm air and sunlight behind and knowing you’re deep underground just gives it an other-worldly feel, and yet every cave seems to have its own personality. We like touring caves!

We had hoped to camp right in the State Park but it was full so we had to find somewhere else. I had not realized how rural that part of the Florida panhandle is and we ended up camping in a State Forrest over an hour away. Camel Lake Campgroundin the Apalachicola National Forest was a nice place to camp but it was too far away for us to do more than just visit for one day. The park offers a lot more than just a cave but all we had time for was a cave tour and a short hike.

Cool cave formations!

Timing is very important at Florida Caverns. We enjoyed a full tour of the cave, while friends of ours who were there just a few weeks after us got an abbreviated tour since many of the chambers we’d walked through were completely underwater.

Interesting color variations on these formations.

We were able to see many different kinds of cave formations, cave crayfish (which are completely white!) and a few tiny bats. Our guide shared stories of the history of the cave, including the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps that made the cave accessible to tourists. The 45-minute tour seemed to fly by and then we were out in the warm Florida sunshine again.

We were lucky that someone spotted this bat hanging from the ceiling.

As we were nearing the exit there was one pillar that we were allowed to touch it. This will cause the growth to stop and my guess is that the park decided to allow people after realizing that so many already have and there was no way for it to recover. The kids loved to touch it after having been told multiple times that they were not allowed to touch anything in the cave.

Finally something that we are allowed to touch!

I will end this post with a family picture from the cave. Or maybe I should call it a cave-family picture?

Cave-family or family in a cave? You decide!

Thanks for following the journey of me and my family
as we travel and roadschool our kids around the USA.

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