Longhorn Cavern State Park: The National Cave of Texas

We had planned a day in Austin during our weeklong Texas road trip, but after getting caught up in Fredericksburg visiting German churches, hiking mountains, and touring museums and peace gardens, it was already evening by the time we arrived in the Texas capital.

We will have to come back again. To be honest, I've never really spent much time in Austin. I guess it'll have to wait, though, because the very next day, we were already on our way out of town, heading out to Longhorn Cavern State Park.

driving past the state capitol building

Longhorn Cavern was established as a state park in 1932 as a part of President Roosevelt's Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps. This public works program was designed to improve the infrastructure of the country and put young men back to work in order to stimulate the economy during the worst economic depression the United States had ever known.

The men of the CCC took great pride in their work, and their artistry shows in the lovingly-built buildings of the park, as well as in the careful preservation of the cave down below.

Tours of the caverns are scheduled on the hour, so Pinky and I had a little time to explore the rest of the park. Longhorn Cavern is a smaller Texas state park. As the main feature of the park is the cave, there are no campsites (though camping is allowed at Inks Lake State Park just 6 miles down the road), but there are a few small nature trails and picnic areas up top.

There are also a few structures left behind by the CCC, and visitors are allowed - even encouraged - to explore them.

One such structure, an observation tower used by the CCC workers, is still in fantastic condition, and that was the first place we decided to check out.

 You can climb up a rickety metal spiral staircase to the top of the three-story tower, where you can see amazing views of the park and surrounding countryside. It was a hot summer day, and despite the cool breeze from the top of the tower, we were ready to get down below into the cool depths of the cavern!

It was time for the tour. You can only go into the cave with a park ranger on an officially sanctioned tour at Longhorn Cavern. This is to ensure the safety of the guests as well as the preservation of the cave's delicate ecosystem.

Jim, the park ranger assigned to guide our small group on our tour of the cave, was a great guide! Super funny, personable, and witty, Jim made the tour a great experience.

 

Ranger Jim led us down to the mouth of the cave, which was just a short walk from the park headquarters. After explaining the rules - basic stuff about how to respect the cave - he unlocked the big iron gate, and led the way inside.

Cave photos don't usually turn out so well, so I didn't include many. Needless to say, however, the cave was spectacular! Though smaller and (relatively) younger than Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Longhorn Caverns was just as interesting due to the stories from its fascinating past.

Longhorn Cavern has quite a storied history. It was seen as a sacred space by the Native American tribes who lived in the area, and evidence of mammoth bones even show that prehistoric people used it as a hunting trap. In more modern times, the cavern was the site of the dramatic rescue from a band of Indians of a young settler girl by the Texas Rangers, and in the 1920s and 30s a large cavern was used as a dance hall and speakeasy.

The cave tour takes around 90 minutes. At one point, you have to duck for a few yards, as the ceiling drops to around 4 feet high, but generally, it's tall and wide enough to walk easily throughout the caverns.

The cave is especially fascinating for its variety of geological structures, from smooth, round stone to crystalline structures made of calcite. 

When the CCC discovered the Hall of Crystals, they thought they had struck it rich with diamonds. The crystals turned out to be calcite, a soft crystal of relative low value. This was actually a great benefit to the cave, though! The crystals were never mined, leaving the spectacular formations in place!

We also got to creep past a few sleeping bats. These were Texas tricolored bats, a tiny bat species which we had learned about a few days earlier at Dinosaur Valley. This vulnerable species of bat is one of the smallest in the US, usually weighing around .25oz.! They are cute and tiny, but it's best not to disturb them.

Even though we missed Austin, it was worth it to make the day trip out to Longhorn Cavern! I had never been there before, and it's always exciting to see something new. The state park is highly recommended if you are in the Austin area, and is even worth the trip out there if you're from a little farther away.