Crawl Your Way Into Another World Full Of Hidden Chambers At Carolyn’s Caverns In Wisconsin

To experience some of Wisconsin’s amazing places, you sometimes need to get a little dirty. To explore the depths of Carolyn’s Caverns, you’ll climb and crawl through plenty of dirt, mud, dust, and sediment. But what you’ll find in this hidden cave system is simply remarkable and well worth the adventure – just be prepared to do some laundry afterward!

Here’s why it’s worth descending into the dark and dirty depths of Carolyn’s Caverns.

You’ll find the caverns just south of Chilton, Wisconsin in Ledge View Nature Center, a wooded 105-acre county park.

While the park has 2.5 miles of hiking trails and a 60-foot observation tower, the caverns are the park’s most remarkable feature. Guided tours take visitors on trips into the cave system.

The caverns are natural solution dolomite caves – they are natural holes in dolostone bedrock that were first formed first by groundwater, then later expanded by meltwater from the Wisconsin glacier thousands of years ago. The meltwater brought a lot of sediment into the cave – don’t wear your finest clothes on this tour!

Ladders and steps lead visitors into the caves and if you wish you can crawl through tight passages between the caves. Kids often prefer to take the tunnels!

Bring a flashlight along and some warm clothes, even when it’s a hot summer day. The caves always stay a cool 55 degrees. Closed-toe footwear is required on the tour.

The tours don’t take place in the winter – bats hibernate in the caves during colder months.

A naturalist guides the tours and participants aged 5 and up are allowed to participate. The park sometimes offers adventure cave tours that involve more crawling in the caverns. See the park’s website for the latest offerings. Interested in exploring more Wisconsin caves? Here are some that are like entering another world.