Longhorn Cavern

The fourth state park we visited on Holiday 2022-23 Vanabout was Longhorn Cavern State Park. For me, this was the crown jewel of the trip.

Some background— I grew up in southern Louisiana, which is a veritable cave desert. Most of my family’s vacations were to the Florida panhandle, which is beautiful, but also severely lacking in caves. So I made it well into adulthood without ever visiting a cave. My first cave was actually on this trip— not Longhorn Cavern, but Crystal Cave at Garner! It is pretty small, enough room for a few people. I figured Longhorn Cavern would be bigger, but I didn’t really know what to expect.

I definitely was not prepared for the multi-story, multi-room labyrinth that awaited us— It was awesome.

But before I begin gushing about the cavern, some logistical information. Longhorn Caverns is a bit different from other Texas State Parks. There’s very little hiking and no overnight camping— the attraction is the cavern. (However, Inks Lake State Park is just up the road, so go there if you want a close camping spot. More on it in a future post!)

We took the basic tour, which puts you underground for about hour an half, descending up 200 ft below the surface. The cavern is about 68 degrees year-round, so probably bring a sweater.

This is probably obvious, but pets are not allowed on the tour, so Zoe missed out on the cave.

Now for some of my favorite things!

The Features

The cave looks like something from an alien planet. Longhorn cavern was actually formed in a different way that most caves— it’s a “flow cave,” formed by underground rivers, as opposed to water from the surface.

Some notable geological features included:

1) The Queen’s Throne

This is a formation that resembles, you guessed it— a throne. It is unfortunately inactive and damaged because of so many people sitting on it or breaking things off over the years.

You might wonder how a rock can be be “active” or “inactive.” Active formations are still collecting minerals from dripping water. The oils from our hands can cause the formations to become inactive, so don’t touch!

2) The Queen’s Watchdog

“The Queen's Watchdog” is what appears to be a sculpture of a dog sitting in front of the Queen's Throne.

But it's not actually mad-made! I almost couldn't believe it, but scientists cannot find any evidence of tool markings and believe it was formed by water flow over dolomite rock.

The CCC moved it to its current location in the 1930s.

Good dog!

3) The Hall of Marble:

We loved the entire thing, but thought the Hall of Marble was the most breathtaking part of Longhorn Cavern-- it is made of Dolomite (which sorta looks like Marble) and is absolutely other-worldly.

4) Hall of Diamonds

The “hall of diamonds” is also not what it looks like! These sparkles are actually calcium carbonate.

Calcium Carbonate is not worth very much and is much less hard than diamonds. It ranks a 3 on the Mohs Hardness Scale, which puts it slightly above a fingernail but below a penny. Diamonds are, by definition, at the top with a 10.

Sparkly!

The History

Our tour guide Mark was great and gave us lots of interesting historical stories, including

- The Comanche tribe used it for meetings and used the rock to make spears, but they would not go beyond where the light from the surface would reach.

- It used to house a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats. Their guano was mined for gunpowder during the Civil War.

- In the 1930s, it contained a restaurant, bar, and dance floor!

- It was a potential nuclear fallout shelter in the 1960s.

The Bats

There are a handful of Eastern Pipistrelle bats throughout the cave. They are loner-bats, so you won’t see them in a large colony (although we did see two buddies!). Mark aptly described them as looking like little brown chicken nuggets.

The Dark

Our guide turned out all of the lights for a few minutes at one point (after ample warning!) so we could see what true darkness looks like. It’s weird to think about it, but I had never really experienced that before!

Then he had us wave our hands in front of our faces. A significant percentage of people can faintly see their hand moving— of course, it’s a complete illusion— there’s NO light, so you can’t see ANYTHING. But your brain knows your hand is moving and helpfully fills in the information.

There is a short (maybe a mile or so) hiking trail that winds around the property. It is nice, but nothing particularly special, but it felt good to be out in the sun after being underground for so long!

I would absolutely visit this place again, and now want to visit other caves!