14 Amazing Caves in Kentucky (From Popular Spots to Hidden Treasures)

Caves, or caverns, litter the earth’s surface. They’re naturally occurring voids in the ground that can extend for miles in any direction. Most of the time, these caverns form over millions of years and take several different types — including solutional (the most naturally occurring), primary, sea, and erosional, among others.

Because Kentucky is rich in limestone, it’s home to thousands of different natural and “wild” caves. While some of these have become commercialized to suit mass human exploration, others remain untouched. Both provide residents and locals with a unique method to explore nature, encounter new species, and learn about the flora of Kentucky.

Discover 14 amazing caves to explore in Kentucky, from popular tourist spots to hidden treasures.

How Many Caves Does Kentucky Have?

Some estimations only account for 130 or so caves in Kentucky. However, Kentucky has over 5,000 caves under it. 

According to the Kentucky Speleological Survey in 2018, it discovered the five thousandth cave in Jackson County. The exploration didn’t stop there — researchers and professional cavers have continued to find more caves with technical equipment like LiDAR.

LiDAR (light detection and ranging) tools allow above-ground exploration to find caves hidden in plain sight. This technology, most recently in drone form, gives a bird’s eye view with laser scanning to create maps of thick forests. Some caves may have years of overgrowth surrounding the entrance or a false cover. While helpful to keep Kentucky’s wild caves safe from novice climbers, finding these caves provides a handy help to hikers and nature enthusiasts who may accidentally fall through a covered entrance and get lost.

Kentucky’s limestone foundation covers nearly a quarter of the state, meaning the underground conditions are favorable to cave formation. The Kentucky Speleological Survey expects its members to find many more caves as locals continue to explore their backyard wilderness. It also works with individuals and government organizations to create a comprehensive and up-to-date database of the entire state’s cavern maps.

1. Great Saltpetre Cave

Livingston, Kentucky is home to the Great Saltpetre Preserve, which houses the massive Great Saltpetre Cave. It’s mostly managed for historical purposes today, as mining activities ceased decades ago. Most individuals need to wait for annual events to visit the cave, but sponsoring grottos and other environmental groups can coordinate trips with the managing officials. These groups are also the only ones that have camping privileges at the cave.

This is one of the largest saltpetre caves on the East Coast of the United States. Most notably, crews used this cave to mine for saltpetre for the War of 1812. While normally closed to the public, it does invite the public to explore during its annual open house events in the spring.  

Saltpetre played an important role in nineteenth and twentieth-century wars, as it was both an ingredient for gunpowder and a food preservative. It helped protect soldiers from contracting botulism from food with the toxin. 

2. Mammoth Onyx Cave

Horse Cave, Kentucky plays host to one of the oldest caves in the Bluegrass State: the Mammoth Onyx Cave. Located in the greater area of the Kentucky Adventure Zoo, visitors to the Mammoth Onyx Cave can expect to climb 144 steps underground, where a balmy 58 degrees greets you for the duration of the tour.

Discovered at the tail end of the eighteenth century in 1799, Mammoth Onyx Cave opened to visitors in 1922 and has delighted families with a leisurely exploration of the underground world ever since. Visitors will see stalactites, stalagmites, waterfalls, and ponds in their tour of the cave. Because it’s an active and wet cave, be sure to bring the proper footwear and watch your step.

The best time to go to the Mammoth Onyx Cave is when it rains — water drips down from the ground, which will create new formations over time! When you go during a rainstorm, you’re seeing speleogenesis occur in real time. The tour guides in Mammoth Onyx Cave would also love to describe to you what cave cauliflower and cave popcorn are, so be sure to ask them.

3. Carter Caves State Resort Park

Cascade Caverns, located inside Carter Caves State Resort Park, offers a pretty incredible experience. If you’ve never seen an underground waterfall, you can’t miss a trip to Cascade Caverns. 

Unlike its sister cave (mentioned immediately below), Cascade Caverns only offers tours in the winter. On the 75-minute tour — which is pretty accessible, as far as cave tours go — visitors will see stunning sites including the Lake Room, the Cathedral in North Cave, and the Dance Hall.

Gazing up at the 30-foot-tall Cascade Falls, you’ll see history in the making as the water rushes over rock formations, continuing to change the shape of the stalactites and stalagmites located around the falls. The reflecting pool in the Lake Room, as well as the cavernous Dance Hall where the owner had square dances in the 1920s, remain unique attractions to explore as well. 

4. Bat Cave

Located on the Carter Caves State Resort Park, Bat Cave shares 146 acres with the nearby Cascade Caverns. While now only open for wild cave walking tours, Bat Cave was named as such in 1981 for the protection of the Indiana bat that calls the cave home. It’s the larger of the two caves in Carter Caves State Resort Park but is not a cave that amateur spelunkers should attempt.

The rugged tours, offered between May and September, take about two and half hours and cover two miles of underground terrain. Cavers will get wet and muddy, have to duck walk for over 100 feet, and walk a quarter mile from the outset to get to the cave in the wilderness. 

Several decades ago, the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves dedicated Bat Cave as part of its system to preserve the population of bats in it. 

5. Red River Gorge Underground

One of the two water-based cave explorations on the list is Kentucky’s Red River Gorge Underground located in the city of Rogers. No matter the season outside, the mine’s water hovers around 52 degrees Fahrenheit, so it never freezes.

The flooded cavern is only accessible by boat — and visitors can choose a traditional boat, kayaking, or paddleboarding experience to experience the dark depths of the cave. The classic boat tour takes up to 20 people on a custom-built pontoon through the limestone mine to see live waterfalls, clear spring water, and more. If you’d rather drive the boat than be driven, opt for the kayaking or paddleboarding experiences, which allow you to explore the mine, following a guide. Both the kayaks and paddleboards have an upgrade available — they have light-up bottoms to illuminate the water underneath for a truly breathtaking experience.

After you’ve explored the flooded mine turned underwater cave, Red River Gorge has a plethora of other outdoor activities to enjoy like camping, hiking, and fishing.

6. Mammoth Cave National Park

Located in Central Kentucky, this 52,000+ acre national park extends between Edmonson, Hart, and Barren counties. The park itself remains divided by the Green River and has an address of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Visitors are encouraged to plan their travel ahead of time, as GPS coordinates often mislead people who then miss their cave tour appointments.

The heart of the national park, Mammoth Cave, offers incredible cave tours between August and September. The tours range in difficulty, length, and location. Some have self-guided discovery paths while others take their theme from the stalactites on which the tour focuses. 

Most notably, this is the world’s longest-known cave system with over 400 miles of it explored. Cave tours allow visitors to explore 10 miles of the cave in a guided setting, as well as hike, fish, camp, and kayak in the surrounding area. Tourists can expect to see wildlife like bats and different insects.

7. Colossal Caverns

Located just 1.5 miles from Mammoth Cave, Colossal Caverns spans hundreds of feet up and across in its biggest halls. It’s connected to Mammoth Cave by two smaller caves to create the 144-mile Flint-Mammoth Cave System.

Water’s machinations in the cave have led to massive upheavals of structure from the first survey of the cave. Once thought to have been the work of earthquakes and underground eruptions, the powerful water that rushes into the cave from different sources has carved out halls and domes. 

One of the largest domes is the Colossal Dome, which measured 135 feet high at its apex. Another massive hall is the Ruins of Carthage, which measures 400 feet by 100 feet and is 30 feet high.

8. Lost River Cave

Bowling Green, Kentucky has an astoundingly commercial tourist attraction in Lost River Cave. Not only does it offer tours and events for scout troops, you can hold birthday parties, corporate events, and even weddings in the cavern!

Lost River Cave is the other underground water-filled cave on this list. Outside of the events held in the mouth of the cave, Lost River provides boat tours for visitors to explore the storied history of the now-flooded cavern. In the past, it was used as a hunting ground for Native Americans, a campground for Union and Confederate soldiers, one of Jesse James’ hideouts, and even an underground nightclub from the 1930s.

Boat tours take approximately 45 minutes in total. It’s 20 minutes of a guided walk and 25 minutes of a boat tour on the water of the cave.

9. Goochland Cave

If you’re looking for a challenging cave to explore off the beaten path, this cave has all you want — and more.

Goochland Cave hasn’t been fully explored yet, but it remains the longest-known cave in Rockcastle County at just over 11 miles long. A potential danger with the cave is that it’s prone to flash flooding, so expert spelunkers should take care in exploring if the forecast includes rain. Currently, local spelunking groups conduct routine climbs to discover more parts of the cave.

10. Diamond Caverns

You might not find an actual diamond in these caves, but the glittering rocks inside will look just like the precious gemstone.

Diamond Caverns is a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve. The walls of the caverns hold 160 years of tourist’s amazement — and thousands of years of human history. State-of-the-art lighting illuminates calcite and other naturally-draped rock formations in the cathedral-like chambers of Diamond Caverns.

Tours of the caverns happen approximately every 45 minutes. The cave does not have an open or closed season; it is open year-round from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day. It does not accommodate reservations and every tour operates on a first-come, first-serve basis.

11. Eleven Jones Cave

Allegedly named for the 11 brothers named “Jones” who used the cave as a hideout in the nineteenth century, this is one of the most well-known and well-documented caves in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Though spelunkers extensively surveyed the cave, no one can prove the legend of the Joneses. Biologists regard the cave as an important and significant habitat for an endangered species in the region: the Louisville cave beetle. 

Spelunker should not tour the Eleven Jones Cave based on its bad air. The cave has fatal levels of carbon dioxide in the air, causing death after mere minutes of breathing it in.

12. Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

Gap Cave, located in Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Middlesboro, is a continually-evolving cave. Though professionals have explored over 18 miles of the cave, only a half mile is open to the public.

Why? Because the breakdown process of its underground passages and caverns crumbling in on themselves is still happening. As water drains from newly-formed passages, there’s more of a threat of the ceilings collapsing onto the etched-out alleys. Expert spelunkers believe the large rooms that do exist in Gap Cave are a direct result of this formation process.

The wildlife in Gap Cave includes some salamanders, rats, and cave crickets. It is also a refuge for Indiana bats, the threatened species that also takes up residence in Bat Cave.

13. Hidden River Cave

Once you’re done touring the Mammoth Onyx Cave in Horse Cave, Kentucky, head over the Hidden River Cave for the world’s longest swinging underground bridge. When walking down the picturesque streets of Horse Cave’s downtown, you’d never know an entire world lies below your feet. 

Hidden River is an environmental success story. Once a source of drinking water and hydroelectricity for the city, the unregulated dumping of sewage resulted in terrible water quality and noxious fumes arising from the entrance. Through the diligent efforts of a nonprofit and volunteers, the restoration of its health from the 1970s to today remains a testament to the efforts of conservationists. 

This cave’s main attraction is the sunset dome: a staggeringly-large circular room that offers 5.5 acres of free floor space to marvel at the formation above. It remains one of the largest free-standing cave domes in the United States, and the world.

14. Mega Cave

Mega Cave isn’t a naturally occurring cave in Kentucky. However, it made it onto the list because it’s such a popular tourist attraction. In fact, it’s ranked in the top spot on TripAdvisor for attractions in Louisville. Tourists have the option to zip line, ride an extreme tram, or complete an aerial ropes course in the echoing levels of Mega Cave.

First mined in 1930, the cavern stretches under all 10 lanes of the Watterson Expressway. Miners blasted tons of rock out of the quarry for 42 years before private investors took over in the 1980s and transformed the cavern into a high-security warehouse and tourist destination. 

During both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, government officials considered using Mega Cave as a bomb shelter. It can handle 50,000 people safely and has the ability to weather natural disasters. 

A Note About Wild Caves In Kentucky

Though Kentucky has over a dozen caves readily available for people to explore on their own or with a tour guide, the majority of Kentucky’s caves are wild. 

Wild caves — meaning they aren’t readily accessible for the public’s exploration — don’t have provisions like lights and stairs. Exploration of wild caves should not be attempted alone by amateur or even novice spelunkers. These caves demand extensive preparation, planning, and packing. Because it’s so dangerous, experienced wild cavers have an unspoken agreement around each other to not share the exact location of these wild caves online or in printed materials. Instead, part of the “fun” — and the challenge to weed out novices — is finding the cave on your own. Additionally, these expert spelunkers don’t want to encourage amateurs to climb, crawl, and navigate through complex subterranean terrains. 

The Dangers of Wild Caving

Getting lost. Amateur wild cavers can get lost very easily in unmapped caves. Losing your headlamp, forgetting your path, or accidentally falling can spell disaster quickly.

Getting injured. Trips that result in sprained or broken limbs don’t pose mobility problems above ground. When you’re underground, moving is a full-body experience and if one of those limbs is out of commission, it will be a slow and painful trek back to the surface.

Encountering an animal. Wild caves often have wildlife populations unaccustomed to human interaction. Bats, spiders, snakes, and scorpions rank among caves’ most popular dwellers.

Getting stuck. Like a devastating real-life version of 127 Hours, boulders can slip or shift easily during exploration, trapping the spelunker or causing injury. 

Additionally, the Leave No Trace Principle stands even with cave diving. So much so that that empty sports bottle you brought should double as a bathroom — every action you take in a wild cave is outside of the natural ecosystem and can have an impact on the life inside of the cavern.

Summary of the 14 Best Caves in Kentucky

Spelunking in Kentucky

Are you an avid outdoors person who loves to experience the thrill of a new world underground? The amazing caves in Kentucky promise an active adventure with family or friends — whether you choose to adventure in the man-made Mega Cave or try your hand at navigating the world’s largest cave system. 

Whenever you embark on your spelunking journey, make sure to take the proper precautions. Let people know where you’re going, for how long you’ll be there, and a number to call in case of emergencies. Bring water and snacks relative to the time you’ll be underground, and leave no trace of your presence to keep the ecosystem as unbothered as possible.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Khairil Azhar Junos/Shutterstock.com