North of Austin, Texas, and along Interstate 35, Inner Space Cavern is an ideal tour for cold days, hot days and all the days in between. Caves offer an unworldly space to tour with unique rock formations. Some caves are home to creatures that never see the sun. Most kids love caves, especially if they are school-aged or older. Here is everything you need to know for touring Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown, Texas.
Should You Visit a Cave?
Visitors can explore an underground world that never sees sunlight. It is a unique landscape with rock formations and Inner Space Caverns formed as water slowly dripped from the ground above each space or room, leaving limestone deposits.
Caves are also interesting, since people discovered each, sometimes even by curious kids out on a hike. Then, cave scientists explore them to chart the space and learn more about the rock formations.
One of the top reasons to visit is the consistent conditions. The weather in the cave never changes, so it is an ideal tour for hot, rainy or cold days.
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Who Discovered Inner Space Cavern?
Wonder why Inner Space Cavern is conveniently located on Interstate 35? The Texas Highway Department discovered it while drilling core samples for a road.
Before installing a highway, holes are drilled to see if the ground is stable enough to support an overpass. In Spring 1963, engineers were drilling one of those holes when the drill bit suddenly dropped 26 feet.
Word traveled, and the Texas Speleological Society came to do a survey. In November 1963, the first explorers were lowered down the 6-inch-wide hole through solid limestone into the cavity below.
Within a few weeks, the speleologists discovered 7,000 feet of the cave. Inner Space Cavern opened to the general public in 1966.
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Inner Space Cavern
The cavern is estimated to be around 20–25 million years old. It is considered a karst cave, a cave formed by limestone deposits as water trickles through the space.
The cavern offered shelter during the Ice Age, and animals used it. Scientists have some fossils of a sabertooth tiger, a baby mammoth and a giant sloth inside the cave.
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Inner Space Cavern Tours
The cave is 72 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. However, due to humidity, it feels like 80 degrees on the cave tour.
Reservations are not necessary for the Adventure Tour. The other tour requires online reservations.
Adventure Tour
This is the standard tour and lasts an hour and a half. All ages allowed. This tour never sells out.
Adults tickets are $27.95 Monday through Thursday and $29.95 Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Kids 4 to 12 are $18.95 Monday through Thursday and $19.95 Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Kids 3 and younger are free; however, strollers and baby carriers are not allowed on cave tours.
Hidden Passages Tour
This tour is open to kids 7 and older. Explore the newest section of the cave, the Hidden Passages Tour, which lasts an hour and a half.
Adults tickets are $33.95 Monday through Thursday and $34.95 Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Kids 7 to 12 are $23.95 Monday through Thursday and $24.95 Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Wild Caves Tour
For three and a half to four hours, participants explore the dark passages of the cave when they go off-trail. This tour is for kids 13 and older,
This is considered an advanced tour. All tickets are $125 each, and reservations are required.
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My Visit to Inner Space Caverns on a School Trip
For my visit to Inner Space Cavern, I went with a school group. Our class included twenty-two third graders.
The walk from room to room is easy, and it’s not at all claustrophobic. The cave is well-lit, and none of the kids on my tour had any issues with the dark.
During the tour, we learned about the formation of the geological features, like how water is responsible for forming the stalactites and stalagmites. Since Inner Space Cavern is a living cave, visitors aren’t allowed to touch the formations. The oils from your hands kill the rock formations.
About halfway through our tour, the tour guide stopped short and shone his flashlight a few inches above our heads. To his delight, the kids spot a BAT. Yes, a tiny, little bat. The kids on the tour went WILD, trying to climb over each other to see it.
The tour guide moved the tour along, and the bat remained unharmed. He gathered the group in another room and got our attention.
FLICK, he turned off the lights in the cave. Wow! Black. The kids started howling like kids, in the dark, underground. Before it got too crazy, he turned the lights back on, and I’ll admit, I’m a little relieved.
At the end of the tour, we walked by the exhibit displaying all the prehistoric animals found in Inner Space Caverns. I won’t spoil the surprise, but if you have a dinosaur-loving kid, then this is a must-visit.
Where’s Inner Space Caverns
Located at 4200 South I-35 Frontage Road in Georgetown, 25 miles from Austin, Texas. Open daily from 9 a. m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a. m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
There is a gift shop and snack area. Visitors will find a zip line and gem-mining. There is also a hiking trail above the cave.
Know Before You Go
- Inner Space Caverns is NOT wheelchair accessible, so strollers aren’t allowed in the cave.
- The trails are wet in spots; wear tennis shoes for the best traction.
- The temperature is a mild 72 degrees year-round.
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