Spelunking Adventure Trips

Spelunk-Tacular Saturdays
Saturday Spelunking without Reservations

Many visitors know Cumberland Caverns for our famous "wild tours." We are one of the first commercial caves to offer these adventures to the public and the first cave to offer an overnight adventure. Cumberland Caverns is now proud to offer a new way to enjoy the fun and exciting world of caving.

Individuals or small groups will have the opportunity to enjoy the climbs and crawls of Cumberland Caverns. Each Saturday we will be offering a daytime spelunking adventure, without reservations and without group minimums. If you want to come by yourself
or just bring along a couple of friends, you'll get the caving experience of a lifetime.

Our other adventure tours will still require a group minimum of 10 with a 10 day notice. But now every Saturday at 1:00 pm, individuals or small groups simply need to be at the cave by 1:00 pm (Central Time) to go spelunking. Your guide will provide you with a helmet and head light and lead you through one of the most famous "wild" cave tours around. (You may want to bring along another flashlight, and a change of clothes.)

Every Saturday at 1:00 pm, we will offer our "Rocky Topper" tour which leads you through "The Lemon Squeezer, "Bubble Gum Alley" and "The Devil's Backbone."

If you would like more information on this or other adventures give us a call at: 931-668-4396.

• Expand your imagination and caving experience through crawls & climbs, ladders & ledges, plus tight squeezes and muddy messes.
• Our Adventure Trips showcase some of our most beautiful and unusual sites and formations.
• This extreme-adventure is truly untamed and is the perfect way to spend half a day with your club, church, class, business, or just a few of your friends.
• Have you every spent the night 500 feet underground? Well here’s your chance. Cumberland Caverns also offers overnight spelunking tours throughout the year.
  

For Additional information see our Adventure FAQ.

• This adventure trip through Rocky Top’s rocky bottom will give the first-time spelunker a taste of the untamed-underground and show the experienced caver unsurpassed sites and formations.

• You’ll know it’s not your usual cave tour when you begin near the “Devil’s Quarry.” Will you make it through the infamous “Lemon Squeezer” and “Bubble Gum Alley?” Tight squeezes, cave crawling, and ladders-in-the-caverns will make this an adventure you will be able to brag about.

• You will encounter unique formations, spectacular gypsum crystals and plenty of mud. Rocky Topper is a unique team-building adventure for youth group leaders, business managers, teachers, churches, or any other club or organization.

• This is the original "wild tour" known also as the "Gypsum Crawl." You will have a great sense of accomplishment when you finally make out. And you will have stories to tell all your friends and family about the adventure you had at Cumberland Caverns.

• Hear the famous story of Aaron Higgenbotham while taking a break mid-way through the trip. This cave turned his hair white. What will it do to you!
• Everyone's favorite is always "Bubble Gum Alley" but it not really made of bubble gum. This sticky passage is full of mud and full of fun. Be sure your shoes are on tight!
• You will encounter the tricky "Balance Beam" and the unusual "Devil's Backbone" both made from the mud from visitors shoes after leaving Bubble Gum Alley.
• The "Lemon Squeezer" is just what it sounds like, a tight squeeze to cap off your Adventure Trip.
• The "Rocky Topper" Adventure Trip will generally take 2 ½ to 3 hours to complete.
• Adding the Daily Scenic Walking tour to "Rocky Topper" will give you 4 to 4 ½ hour in the cave.

Click to download pdf Map of "Rocky Topper"

• The Spelunking Adventure Trip is an extremely strenuous activity.
• These trips are also highly addictive, many adventure seekers have been known to want to go back again and again.
• There are several tight crawls and you will get wet and muddy! (Good clean dirty fun!)
• The smallest crawlspace is only 11 inches high!
• You will be amazed and in awe at what and who can be squeezed through an 11" high hole.
• DO NOT participate in the spelunking tour if you have heart or respiratory condition, knee or back problems.
• DO participate in the spelunking tour if you have a sense of adventure, a thrill seeking condition, or need for physical activity.