Postcards: The Underground Scene

Also in Postcards: A Collecting Obssession, Family fun, reinvented

Cool off in Texas’ show caves

By Lori Moffatt

While fall is right around the corner, temperatures in Texas often climb to triple digits well into September. But you can stay cool underground, where it’s often at least 20 degrees cooler than on terra firma.

In the Boerne area, Cascade Caverns (830/755-8080; www.cascadecaverns.com) and Cave Without a Name (830/537-4212; www.cavewithoutaname.com) offer in-triguing underground passageways and formations like “cave bacon.” Natural Bridge Caverns, between New Braunfels and San Antonio (210/651-6101; www.naturalbridgecaverns.com), offers several varieties of tours, ranging from a half-mile tour along paved, interior “sidewalks” to some that require slithering through narrow passageways.

Longhorn Cavern, which formed as water dissolved the limestone bedrock southwest of Burnet, draws visitors to Longhorn Cavern State Park (877/441-2283; www.longhorncaverns.com). Wonder Cave, formed by an earthquake along the Balcones Fault near San Marcos, anchors Wonder World Theme Park (512/392-3760; www.wonderworldpark.com). Inner Space Cavern, in Georgetown, was discovered in 1963 as engineers constructed a new section of Interstate 35 (512/931-2283; www.myinnerspacecavern.com). And for the ultimate late-summer chill-out, travelers headed to and from the Big Bend can explore the underground wonderlands of the Caverns of Sonora (325/387-3105; www.cavernsofsonora.com).

From the August 2011 issue.

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