My husband and I loaded up the twins this past Saturday for a mini road trip to Boerne (about a 1 hr 15 min drive from Dripping Springs) to explore a natural marvel – Cave Without a Name. One visit to this National Natural Landmark will remind you that the Texas Hill Country is a magical place.
I’ve summarized our experience below and of course included some of the incredible photos we took. I will mention that these photos are NOT highly edited – I lightened them slightly so you could see the cave formations more vividly, but what you see below is a very accurate representation of what you will see on your visit. With that said, let’s go explore!
We arrived for an early tour with the Manager, Andi. With her as our guide, we descended approximately 80 feet below the surface to a place that felt like pure magic to both my husband and I and the twins. It was a lovely cool temperature of 66 degrees in the cave, which it stays at year round. Cool temps in Texas for 12 months of the year?! Heck yeah, y’all!
The Cave is filled with spectacular formations of Stalactites, Stalagmites, Cave Drapery, Rimstone Dams, and more. I was concerned the cave might be a challenge for our small children, but it was totally fine! We held their hands on the stairs down to the cave and then enjoyed easy walkways and lighting as we explored.
The cave was MUCH larger than I expected – I kept thinking we had seen it all then Andi would lead us to another room. The cave was discovered in 1937 and has been open to the public since 1939. My first question was why is it called ‘Cave Without a Name’? Andi said they held a contest back when the cave opened so local children could submit ideas for the name. One boy submitted ‘It should be a cave without a name, because it is too beautiful to be named.’ The boy won the $250 prize (BIG money back then!) and the ‘Cave Without a Name’ was given one.
One of the rooms, called the Queen’s Throne Room, hosts events throughout the year including concerts. The incredible natural dome acoustics makes for an unforgettable place to hear a musical performance. You can also rent this space for weddings or special events.
Andi was a fantastic tour guide and extremely patient with our five year old twins. Often times I find the tour guide can make or break an experience like this, Andi certainly made our cave visit well worth the early drive on a Saturday morning!
After our cave adventure we resurfaced and did some Gem Panning! This activity had the twins squealing with excitement. They each dumped out a bag of sand that allowed them to wash off and uncover all sorts of crystals. I can’t express enough how wonderful the gem pan experience was. If you have children and visit the cave, this activity is a MUST.
Ready to plan your visit? Here are the details! Due to limited capacity in the cave, reservations are required. They open every day at 10am with the last tour of the day entering the cave at 4pm. To make a reservation, call 830.537.4212 between 10 AM and 4 PM or email cwan@cavewithoutaname.com with your date, preferred time (10 am, 11, 12 pm, 1, 2, 3, or 4), and number in your party.
Go get exploring, y’all!
The Stacy Strategy 