Located in the Florida Panhandle in Marianna Florida (between Pensacola and Tallahassee), Florida Caverns State Park has the only dry (air-filled) caverns that are open to the public with guided tours. Caves like this are something that one might not expect in Florida; it really is something to see.
The cave tour takes about 45 minutes to an hour and winds through several rooms with different formations. This is a “living” cave, meaning that it is still evolving. The temperature is a constant 65 degrees (roughly) year round, making it a nice cool spot to visit during the heat of the day.
The cave was cleaned out by digging out the trails and chiseling the tunnels from solid limestone by a group called “The Gopher Gang”. This was a group of young men who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps which was one of the numerous public works projects established during the great depression.
One of the things that surprised me was just how big this cave is. Our group had about twenty people in it, and there was enough space for everyone to move from room to room and hear the tour guide as he explained the different features of the cave.
The cave is also home to some wildlife like this little bat hiding between the curtain formations on the cave walls.
There are are a few pools of water in the cave – during the rainy season in late fall, there are even more.
While each of the rooms have plenty of space, there are a couple of spots that you have to duck down a little to fit through in single file. Nothing too bad though.
Some of the lighting effect are pretty amazing too.
Between the two of us, Tina and I took something like 150 photographs on this tour… way too many to put in this post, but it should give an idea of just how much there is to see here. This is one of those tours that is a must see – it is amazing..
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