Have an Outdoor Adventure in Tennessee's Caves

When the weather outside is cold or rainy, seek adventure in Tennessee's caves. Known for having the most caves in the U.S. (more than 10,000!), Tennessee offers you subterranean experiences from extreme caving tours to cave concerts and even boating on an underground lake. Many of the tours are kid-friendly and are full of history that will leave you appreciating the beautiful nature found underground. Here are a few caves you can explore with your family and friends. 

Caves near Bristol, TN

Bristol Caverns – Bristol

Bristol Caverns is one of the oldest attractions in Northeast Tennessee and is one of Bristol’s most visited attractions. Open year-round, the tour takes you to all three levels of the caverns with highlights including the underground river 180 feet below on the cavern floor and “Mayor Preston’s Chamber”, “Lover’s Leap” and the breathtaking “Bridal Veil” cave formation. Paved, well-lit walkways make this attraction a great choice for families with small children.

Worley’s Cave – Bluff City

More than 4,000 feet of caves and underground tunnels are waiting for you to explore at Worley’s Cave, about 10 miles south of Bristol. And, as the cave is a year-round 55-degrees, it’s an ideal adventure in every season. Before your adventure, sign up online and sign the release form. The cave is primitive, so it’s truly an authentic caving experience. There are no lights, rails or other assistance for your exploration. Most visitors are in the cave for a couple of hours, but if you want to go to the back of the cave, it could take you 4-6 hours. You can also camp while on a caving adventure as Worley Cave offers Friday night camping in the cave with a Saturday morning cave adventure, camp Saturday night and depart on Sunday.

Appalachian Caverns - Blountville

Appalachian Caverns offers a variety of tours for all caving skill levels and ages. The Walking Tour is ideal for children under 2 to ages 55+ as it’s approximately a half-mile walk and a total tour time of 45-60 minutes. 27 stairs help you reach the lower regions and 26 are climbed on the way back up. There’s even a “test crawl” available. The Extended Tour is a moderate tour where you’ll slide across the “whale” rock, try the “Basketball Crawl” and explore the “Hum” for a muddy good time. Moderate to advanced skilled cavers can experience the Explorer Tour and the Wild Tour. Explorer Tour takes you through undeveloped areas of the caverns where you’ll crawl, discover the “Echo Chambers” and more. The Wild Tour invites you to crawl through the “Ear-Dip”, try the “Rib-Crusher”, climb and see the “Balancing Rock” as you follow a guide back into “The Gorge.”

Caves near Great Smoky Mountains 

Forbidden Caverns – Sevierville

Sparking cave formations, natural chimneys, grottos and a stream are just some of the highlights when you take a tour of Forbidden Caverns in Sevierville. The cave is home to many growing formations and the largest wall of rare cave onyx or dripstones known to exist. Each guided tour is about 55 minutes and features large columns of cave formations, the “Grotto of the Dead,” cavern draperies, a Flowstone Wall and a replica of a moonshine still harking back to the cave’s moonshine history. Tours are available April through November. 

Tuckaleechee Caverns - Townsend

Hailed as the “Greatest Site Under the Smokies,” Tuckaleechee Caverns in Townsend, Tennessee is carved within the earth’s oldest mountain chain, estimated to be about 20-30 million years old. Rich in history and lore, you’ll love the stories told on the tour while you marvel at the beautiful rock formations including the Big Room, which could fit a football stadium inside as well as Silver Falls a 210-foot waterfall, the tallest underground waterfall in the Eastern U.S.

The Lost Sea Adventure – Sweetwater

Sail away on America’s largest underground lake while on your own Lost Sea Adventure in Sweetwater, about 45 miles from Knoxville. Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, The Lost Sea tour begins with a ¾-mile round-trip walk of the caverns featuring the cave’s colorful history. At the bottom of the cave, you’ll take a glass-bottom boat ride across the more than 4-acre underground lake that is home of rare anthodites commonly known as “Cave Flowers.” For a bigger adventure, book a Wild Cave Tour full of crawling through cracks, crevices and nooks to see striking formations and view rooms where ancient jaguar roamed, moonshine was made and saltpeter was mined for gunpowder by Confederate soldiers.

Caves near Chattanooga 

Raccoon Mountain Caverns and Campground – Chattanooga

Raccoon Mountain Caverns and Campground offers two types of tours for you to experience the 5.5 miles of underground wonders of this cave system. It’s full of wonderous formations and is one of the most geologically active caverns in the South. Choose the Crystal Palace Walking Tour for a 45-55-minute guided tour through the quarter-mile cave system that brings you face-to-face with stalactites and stalagmites, soda straws and rare shield and helictite formations. You’ll also have a chance to see cave creatures like bats and salamanders as well as ancient fossils. Get a thrill on the Wild Cave Expedition Tours that will have you crawling, climbing, sliding and squeezing through the cave. Choose from either The 2-hour Canyon Crawl or the 3.5-hour Waterfall Dome expeditions which also includes rope climbing, sliding through mud and body-bridging over a 35-foot deep slot canyon. 

Ruby Falls – Chattanooga

Journey deep within Lookout Mountain to gaze upon the tallest underground cave waterfall open to the public in the U.S. at Ruby Falls. Great for all ages, the Ruby Falls tour begins with a descent of 260-feet by glass-front elevator to the cavern trail. You’ll see ancient formations, hear Chattanooga’s rich history, learn how Ruby Falls was discovered and, finally, see the thundering waterfall. A Gentle Walking Tour is offered before-hours for a gentle pace and extra time as well as a History Tour rich with lore and Ruby Falls history as well as a Lantern Tour where you can explore by handheld lantern light. Zipline, take in mountain views and enjoy incredible food onsite as well. If you want to stay overnight, book one of the luxury treehouses at Treetop Hideaways at Ruby Falls.

Nickajack Cave Wildlife Refuge – New Hope

While Nickajack Cave at Nickajack Cave Wildlife Refuge is a partially flooded cave, you can kayak there beginning late March through early October with Chattanooga Guided Adventures for a unique experience. Enjoy a 3-mile easy and scenic paddle out to Nickajack Cave to see up to 100,000 endangered gray bats swoop and fly as they begin their nightly hunt for insects. Learn cool facts about the river and take in the beauty of Nickajack Lake. You may event be able to spot other local creatures like osprey, bald eagles and river otters.

The Caverns - Pelham

By day, explore The Caverns that include one of the largest underground rooms in the world, measuring more than three football fields in length. Guided Cave Tours are great for all ages and includes a behind-the-scenes tour of the underground music hall as well as cave geology, myths of cave lore and fascinating history. Get a little dirty on the Adventure Cave Tour – a 3-4 hour, extremely difficult caving tour for ages 16+ where you’ll explore “Tombstone Pass”, discover an underground river, see unique geological formations and see thriving cave creatures. By night, dance, jam and rave to a wide variety of music artists who perform throughout the year. 

Caves near Nashville

Cumberland Caverns – McMinnville

Offering four different caving experiences based on difficulty, Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville is an amazing way to see beautiful cave formations, making it a great day trip from Nashville. Experience the new cinematic showcase on the kid-friendly (toddler to teenager kids) Discovery walking tour. The nature-focused walking tour has 350+ uneven natural stone stairs and steep hills as well as a new immersive video, light and sound showcase deep in the cave after climbing the Hall of the Mountain King. Additional tours include the kid-friendly Cardwell Mountain History walking tour, the 90-minute Lanterns & Legends walking tour and the Hidden Gems private walking tour featuring an exclusive tour specially for your group for 105-120 minutes.

Jackson Cave – Lebanon

Not only can you horseback ride, hunt, hike and go birding and play disc golf at Cedars of Lebanon State Park in Lebanon, about 31 miles from Nashville, you can also see one of the park’s top attractions – Jackson Cave. The cave is more than a mile in length and is the main surface vent as part of an underground karst network of sinkholes and other cave openings. The cave is open at the park manager’s discretion, but a permit is required to enter the cave which are given at the visitors center. Park staff lead tours inside Jackson Cave throughout the year. 

Bell Witch Cave – Adams

For a truly haunting experience, take a tour of the Bell Witch Cave in Adams, Tennessee. The story of the Bell Witch goes that once she passed away, Kate Batts, an unfriendly neighbor of John Bell, haunted and tortured his family dating back to 1817. Now, it’s said she haunts the cave on property. Take a guided tour of the cave and John Bell cabin May through November to hear the full story and see for yourself if the Bell Witch is still active. Guided lantern tours and a haunted hayride at Witch’s Dell can also be experienced.

Secret Cave – Cookeville

Secret Cave is a hidden gem in Cookeville, Tennessee located at the Albert & Ethel Ogden Nature Preserve. Access to the cave is available by permit only. It’s ideal for expert cavers as you must rappel 34 feet into its main room. Once there, you’ll be awed by the flowstone-covered walls, draperies and rimstone features. Descend another 60 feet to a small room filled with formations. In total, the preserved cave is a total length of 967 feet with a vertical extent of 139 feet and is considered one of the most beautiful caves in Tennessee.