Caves of Mounds

Cave of the Mounds National Natural Landmark is celebrating 75 years since the Cave opened for tours. Since then Cave of the Mounds has become the premier cave in the upper Midwest and the jewel box of America’s major show caves. Guided tours of this geologic wonder follow paved, lighted walkways departing regularly every day of the year.

Armani Second time tour,she first went in the caves when she was 8 months old in Idaho. Very interesting cave tour. Have toured caves before but this one seemed a more personal tour. Small groups and a guide that had knowledge not just of the cave but the area. Really enjoyed the up close views and ability to take pic from just steps away from formations.

We went  with hike it baby Madison and Milwaukee, all the toddlers were able to walk and  explore the caves. It was a rainy and dreary day. The tour is about an hour, at the most, and it does involve staircases – going up and down.

We had a great time here! We did a cave tour in Idaho it was like 36 degrees and longer. On this tour, it’s *literally* the closest I’ve been to cave formations. It’s a living cave and so very beautiful,temp was 55 degrees it was pretty warm.

This was  ideal for a picnic/friends day type of getaway,when we got done with the tour,it stopped raining so we had lunch outside on the picnic tables and head out to the butterfly garden and explore a loop trail.

 

This Butterfly garden was really gorgeous and full of life, Armani had to smell all the flowers and point out the bees and butterflies.

When you reach the top of the gardens next to the red Barn,they have a sign for easy short trails,and we were not sure what we are doing but because we had toddlers with us we pick an easy 0.5 miles to be completed in 30min it looped back to the center.This was the best trail,shaded all the way,no bugs buzzing around,we saw the blackberries tree and stopped for some treat because it just rained that whole morning,the trails goes along the streams so we followed the streams and I knew there must be a waterfall nearby ,we cross the first little stream which was really fun and around the corner it was this gorgeous little waterfall.we didn’t waste time as we were wearing waterproof keen sandals we jumped in and splash water at each other.

After you gross the last stream it loops back to the centre.

This was the best Field trip Ever, cave, picnic, butterfly garden and easy loop trail with waterfalls,Armani was in cloud nine..

I will definitely plan on taking Armani back to this cave every year if we are still around Wisconsin,it was one of the best places and it was on our bucket list to see the caves with my family,but we had an opportunity to go during the week with hike it baby, so husband miss out.

Look at this ute faces!

Not that great but this was the ok group picture in the caves

This was such a fascinating place to check out! Definitely a hidden gem. This cave has NO animals and therefore no bats to worry about. This place was incidentally discovered when some people blew a hole in the ground. It’s a geologist’s treasure with so many stalactites and stalagmites! Gift shop was nice with large selection of rock memorabilia. Garden area was very nice too.

How to get here?