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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Wow! I’ve heard of this place but have never visited. Everyone says that it is beautiful. Perhaps you shoudl check out The Caverns of Sonora if you get the chance. A friend of mine visited it and told me it was one of the most mind-blowingly beautiful places she had ever been. It’s a bit east of Austin, so you may have to make a day of it. Take a look at the website: http://www.cavernsofsonora.com/index.php
Dustin! Hey, glad you checked out the site. Yes, the Natural Bridge Caverns were truly awe inspiring. I’ll have to check out this Caverns of Sonora website and ultimately the caverns themselves. I’ll tell you, in the short time we’ve been in Austin, there has been no shortage of things to see, places to go and people to meet.
Today we took a day trip to Brownwood and rode our bikes around Riverside park, and toured the Howard Payne University campus. There is just so much to see.. I know that we’ll never run out of things to blog about. Thanks again for the tip!
Austinot Eric
we used to go there for our San Antonio elementary school day trips… ain’t been there since but will never forget the “fried egg!”