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Black Chasm Cavern
Rating Details »
Categories: Tours, Landmarks & Historical Buildings [Edit]
15701 Volcano Pioneer RoadVolcano, CA 95689
(209) 736-2708
5 reviews for Black Chasm Cavern
If passing thru - definintely check out. Tours are on the hours. Can get a coupon online for $1 off ...
Short tour though but you learn a little history about the area - and there is a cool little pond of water way down below.
This was my first cave/cavern - and I got the bug! Want to check out more.
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This cave was pretty cool!
My kids and I went and it cost 28 bucks for the 3 of us.
The staff and our guide were extremely friendly and even managed to throw in some light humor during the 45 minute tour.
The cave was nice and cool and the formations in here are awesome.
Worth checking out if your passing through the area.
They have a gift shop that has a million ways to blow 10 bucks and my kids both got a bag of polished rocks for around 8.
I have been to 3 other caves in CA and although these aren't the biggest or baddest there's no good reason not to stop.
On another note the girl working the front counter in the gift shop was cute as a button and never stopped smiling. That was nice too!
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We went here after going to Indian Grinding rock for a hike. It was approximately 95 degrees that day. So when we went into the 63'ish degree cave I was in HEAVEN!
The formations are exceptionally beautiful and we were told that only 4% of caves (in the US I think) have helictite formations which were EVERYWHERE in this cave. I've only ever been in one other cave and it certainly didn't have them. Our guide described them as "what looks like coconut thrown onto the walls" and that's a pretty accurate description (I uploaded a picture of them.)
We LOVED our guide! I wish I had gotten her name. She was well spoken, funny, charismatic, cute, and well educated on geology and the particular cave we were in.
This is a very short tour, and in a few points the stairs are more like going up and down a ladder than stairs. I don't recommend this for anyone who is excessively out of shape or has a heart condition. For your normal does not go to the gym but isn't 80lbs overweight person it should be fine =)
What did I learn:
Bats don't like caves like this one, because it goes pretty much straight down after you enter. They fly in their echolocation tells them it's VERY small, and they leave.
The water in the cave is a lot purer than tap water. It's been tested and a few years back was used to supplement the nearby town's water supplies.
The cave has marble and limestone in it. A mining company was going to mine it for marble, but when they sent in a survey team the team was from the parks department. They noticed the rare helictite formations and declared it a national landmark thus making it illegal to mine.
I'm sure I learned more.. but my memory sucks.
I give it 4 instead of 5 stars because it was a VERY short tour. Great fun though!
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When I took my kids to Black Chasm Cavern the first time, they couldn't wait to go back. They loved the guided tour which took under an hour, and showed off the beauty of this fascinating cave, including the rare crystals in the Landmark Room which have to be seen to be believed! We were on a small tour and our guide let us really take our time to enjoy the scenery - and she was great at answering the myriad questions my older son thew at her. When we got back to the surface, I gave the boys some money to spend in the gift shop... what a fabulous shop! Loads of rocks, kid science stuff and books. There was loads of stuff there that could be bought with the measley $5 each I gave the boys!!! (I'm such a cheapskate).
When we left, we headed over to Indian Grinding Rock State Park which is just 5 minutes away... also really worth visiting!
Since that first time, we've been over to Black Chasm several more times, with friends or just us, and we always love it! If you go, hike the Zen Garden... they can give you a map to it in the gift shop.
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I visited this landmark today and was very surprised and happy about finding such a fun and interesting tour. The caverns are cool and very beautiful and the tour guide was extremely knowledgable about the history of the caverns, Volcano, CA and spelunking in general. I will certainly return and tell my friends about it. I hope you enjoy some of the photos I took during my visit.
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