Mercer Caverns
Hike Review
Mercer Caverns is a cavern system that is one of three close to Big Trees State Park. Because I had been to Moaning Caverns before, we decided to check out Mercer Caverns.
Mercer Caverns tour is a guided one that takes about 45 minutes to complete where every few flights of stairs down/up, the guide explains the history of the cavern and the rocks that reside in it. The tour goes 160ft down/up, so it was a little challenging for the kiddos, but everyone did pretty well.
The caves are 55℉ year round, which meant that for on this day, the cool cavern was a welcome one—the outside temperature was about 90℉.
What I Learned
Someone asked the guide what would happen in an earthquake and she told us that the earth movement only really affects the first 20 ft or something, and that we would be totally safe in the caverns. The point was driven home since many of the rock formations in the caverns were 10s of thousands of years old to millions of years. I guess the worst case scenario would be the entrance or the exit being blocked, but not as bad as the rocks falling all around us.
The cool air in the caverns comes from a 6” opening at the bottom of the caverns and the guide told us that no one knows exactly where it goes.
The tour was made $4 cheaper per person as we had more than 10 people in our party. Pretty cool to have saved $44!
Friends
Ben, Joyce, Carson, Cheng, Helen, Max, Wesley, and David joined us for this hike down into the Mercer Caverns. It was especially funny how Max and Wesley kept fighting over who would get to go first. Also, Carson hiked all 160 ft by himself—what a trooper!
What Happened?
We drove to Mercer Caverns together, spent 30 minutes waiting for the tour to start, and then spent another 45 minutes within the cavern. It was just a walking tour on lots of wooden stairs and everyone did well without hitting rocks with their heads/shoulders or falling on the stairs. The rock formations were interesting to see, but my favorite part was just how cool the cavern was—temperature wise. Afterwards, most of us headed off to eat some asian food and drink some boba.
