Spook Cave: Underground Boat Tour

McGregor, Iowa

At one time, advertising a commercial cave with a hollow-eyed sheet ghost on billboards was promotional genius. And it still works. We allow ourselves to be sucked in, and discover that Spook Cave is one that must be toured entirely by boat. We appreciate this extreme lack of physical effort, and it's a good way to escape the heat.

The cave is a single passage, and the tour has a wild feel to it even though our guide admits that it has been improved with occasional applications of dynamite. When she cautions us about low ceilings, she means it. At several points our boatload has to bend in half, placing their heads between their knees, and even with that we are barely able to slip beneath the overhanging rock.

When you visit, pray that the water level doesn't rise while you're inside, and pay attention -- you don't want to remember Spook Cave as the place where you lost a hunk of your scalp.