Kartchner Caverns State Park

Two cavers found the entrance in 1974 and told almost nobody - not the landowners for four years, and not the state for over a decade - because they had seen what happened to other caves once word got out. They eventually approached the Kartchner family and then the state, and the park opened in 1999 after years of planning specifically to keep the cave alive. It works: airlock doors hold the humidity near ninety-nine percent, misting systems keep visitors from drying the air, lint is removed, and lighting is on only while a group is present. The formations are still growing. Kubla Khan is a column about twenty metres tall. A maternity colony of bats occupies the Big Room and it closes to visitors from April to October for them.

What you actually see

• A living cave - formations still growing, humidity near ninety-nine percent.
• Airlock doors and misting - the systems keeping it alive.
• Kubla Khan - a column about twenty metres tall.
• A bat maternity colony - closing the Big Room half the year.

When to go

Year round; the Big Room is closed April to October. Three hours.

Honest expectations

Tours must be booked ahead and sell out. Photography is prohibited inside entirely. The Big Room is closed for half the year for bats. Touching formations is forbidden and enforced strictly.

Nearby

Benson is north; Tombstone and Bisbee are south.