Cave Recreation

Caves can be a lot of fun

People across California visit caves every day.

Caves provide outdoor recreation fun to Californians and visitors

Whether you are on a tour with a big group on a busy summer day, or just out with few family and friends, caves can be found across the state for fun and recreation. This is the most tangible thing that caves offer to most people, a place to explore, have fun and maybe be challenged. While biologists revel in the amazing cave life of California and geologists try to understand how caves form, everyone else can just head out for a good time. See our Go Caving page for more information on how you and yours can go have fun underground.

Checking out a Tehama County lava tube for some weekend fun. Red roots hang down into this lava tube from trees up on the surface. Dave Bunnell

Caving recreation adventures can vary a great deal. From a short walk with handrails to a deep pit requiring ropes and special gear and training, caves can be easy, or they can be hard and intimidating, and everything in between. Show caves offer the easiest and most family-friendly caving option. Luckily they are found across the state, from the desert to mountains near the Oregon border.

Visiting a Tulare County cave in 1954. Bill Halliday
On a tour and looking at cave formations in Lake Shasta Caverns near Redding. Dave Bunnell