Day Trip to the Natural Bridge Caverns

This past Saturday, Eric and I took a morning drive from Austin to the Natural Bridge Caverns. The Caverns are eight miles off I-35 between New Braunfels and San Antonio (closer to S.A.).

It was the perfect day for a drive and time outdoors. The Natural Bridge Caverns runs tours every 40 minutes at the most, but we got our tickets immediately and were touring 10 minutes later.

There are three different tours to choose from: the Discovery Tour, the Hidden Passages Tour, and the Combo tour – where you do both. Discovery and Hidden Passages are both about 75 minutes long. My understanding is that the Discovery is more walking and seeing, and the Hidden Passages is less walking and more talking.

We took the Discovery Tour and it was amazing.

I loved learning about the discovery of the caverns by college students from St. Mary’s University in the middle of the last century. It was absolutely mind-boggling to look at the beautiful formations all around me, and to think that they were formed drop by drop!

You can eat on locations, or pack a picnic and eat it at tables provided. You can browse the gift shop or “pan for gold.”

I highly recommend the Natural Bridge Caverns for a family outing or special date with your loved one. Just remember that you can’t touch any of the formations in the caverns, and this was difficult even for me! Also, you descend 180 feet on the Discovery and then have to come up again, so if you have serious knee problems or something like that, you may not enjoy the climbing much!

@QuasiBrit asks:

What is your favorite discovery within a day’s trip of Austin?

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