Seqouia’s Crystal Cave is popular destination

Over 200 caves have been discovered within Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks and the mountains immediately surrounding the parks. Two are open to the public – Crystal Cave in Sequoia and Boyden Cavern in Giant Sequoia National Monument – just outside the boundary of Kings Canyon.

I had the opportunity to visit both this year and was about to write about my visit to Boyden when the Rough fire closed the area surrounding it. It will reopen in 2016 and I’ll feature it at that point.

Sequoia’s Crystal Cave is currently open and will remain so until the end of November. If you’ve never been to Sequoia before, it’s one of the top destinations in the park and I highly recommend it. For a good first trip to Sequoia, another must-see destination is the Sherman Tree (1-mile round-trip walk with a steep descent and climb back to the top), though I recommend continuing along the Congress Trail to see more of the park’s largest Sequoias – an additional 2-mile round-trip. The half-mile, round-trip hike to the top of Moro Rock – also steep, but worth the effort for outstanding views, and the 3 ¾ mile round-trip hike to Tokopah Falls (if it is flowing) are also top recommendations.

Crystal Cave is a popular destination and there were a lot of people in the parking area when we arrived on a weekend afternoon in mid-August, but the park does a great job of handling crowds in the cave and the area surrounding it.

The road down to the cave is narrow, so the park has located the ticket sales offices on the main road through the park: the Lodgepole Visitor Center (for visitors coming from the north), and the Foothills Visitor Center (for visitors coming from the south). This reduces the amount of traffic on the road. Since tickets for most tours can only be purchased on the day of the tour, I recommend starting your day at one of the visitor centers so that you can have your pick of tour times and then plan the rest of your day around the tour. Ticket prices for the standard 45-minute Family Tour are $16/adults, $12/youths ages 5-12, and $5/children under 5, with discounts for seniors, veterans and active members of the military.

A variety of other tours are offered during the summer (beginning again June 2016), including a 1.5 hour “Discovery Tour” that provides more in-depth information about the cave’s formation to smaller-size groups, and a 4-6 hour “Wild Cave Tour” that includes crawling and wiggling into some of the more remote parts of the cave. There’s also a Halloween tour that begins on Oct. 23. Advance tickets are offered for the Halloween and Adventure Tours through the website or by calling the Sequoia Natural History Association at 559-565-4222.

Once you get your ticket, it is about an hour’s drive down to the parking area and the park recommends arriving 20 minutes early. The road is restricted to vehicles under 22 feet in length. At an elevation of 5,000 feet, it can be hot, but once you get into the cave, it drops to a refreshing 50 degrees. From the parking lot there is a downhill walk of about a half mile to the cave entrance. You pass a pretty, cascading stream along the way. Watch out for poison oak along the trail. It’s a bit of a climb on the way back up and many people stop along the way to take short rests. You don’t have to be in top physical shape but you should be able to walk at least a mile, climb and descend stairs, and stand for a couple of hours. Make sure you visit the restrooms in the parking area before your tour starts – there aren’t any in the cave area.

The cave is spectacular, with several large rooms. It’s one of the most impressive that I’ve seen. Carved over millions of years by a stream, you can actually see the water flowing beneath you at the start of the tour.

The only things you may need inside are a jacket and a camera. Flash photography isn’t allowed, but with a steady hand you may be able to get some decent photos in some of the areas with brighter lighting. Food, beverages, backpacks, strollers and tripods are prohibited. The tour is about 45 minutes, with a 15-minute walk down to the cave and back up to the parking area.

For more information, check out the Sequoia Natural History Association’s website: http://www.sequoiahistory.org/default.asp?contentid=632.

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Seqouia’s Crystal Cave is popular destination."