Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania: Indian Caverns (Closed)

This is the last season that Indian Caverns will be open to the public. We visited this week and were told that it will be sealed off and turned into a bat habitat in the Fall. So go visit this summer if you can!

We visited in December and got a private tour, so they may have spent more time on the details, but there is a LOT of history connected with this cave. At least three different tribes used the cave; they have artifacts that go back to 8,000 BC, there's a stone with picture writing in one room and so on - plus there's a lot more recent history. I only remember the whiskey rebellion and the "Robin Hood of Pennsylvania," but there was more.

And it has quite a few cool formations and a couple of really BIG rooms (they either skipped or did away with the "silly effects"). When we visited there were a number of bats hibernating (some up close) and a bit of flooding (we had to walk across some concrete blocks to get to the last room). The room where the ceiling lights up from some kind of fluorescent mineral up was VERY cool.

They also have a pretty kitsch tepee and totem pole in the parking lot but the grounds are probably really pretty if you're not there in the middle of winter.

This is one of the largest show caves in Pennsylvania, and it has Native American history (including a display of artifacts found in the cave) and considerable local folklore (like being used as a hideout by a "famous" bandit).

While there are some kitsch touches like a scene of plastic dinosaurs to demonstrate the age of the cave, and some goofy formations like "Shirley Temple's hair," there are also some nice examples of old formation, a huge sheet of flowstone, and a couple of fairly large rooms. They don't go overboard with the colored lighting, but there are one or two pretty silly effects.

It also has a room in which minerals in the ceiling glow in the dark.