The cavern has not guided tours when I went due tp Covid but you can do a self tour with a mask on. You need a ticket to get into the cave and that is like your entrance fee to the park as when I showed my annual pass I did not have to pay anything to get into the cave. There are two ways into/out of the cave. The easiest way is using the elevator both directions but doing so will cause you to miss out on 1.25 miles of cave. The second way is by walking down to the big room which I recommend. The path is paved and it has hand rails but at times is dark. Note: if you want to bring a light bring a red one as the white will kill your and others eyes for the dark. Please be considerate of your fellow visitors. You could walk up and out of the cave but that would be a very hard hike. Down I went walking into the cave and if you miss the cave entrance keep walking home. The entrance is a big home in the earth so Mr. Magoo could find the path. The walking path has many switchbacks and in some places very steep on the way down into the cave. There are also some stairs you have to go up when going down into the cave. The start of the path you will see it is covered with feces from birds and bats along with the smell that goes with the feces. If you can get by that the walk down is very cool. At the bottom of the way down you are in the big room. There is a rock called the iceberg as it fell from the top of the cave, many many years ago, and is over 200,000 tons! You can see this on the walk down but also look at the roof where this big fella fell from. The natural entrance also is where you would go see the bats in the evening, more on this later. There is a 1.25 mile route around the big room and this path is paved with hand railings as well. The elevator is just off of the big room and I believe that the elevator goes up/down 750 feet so the hike down is pretty stout if you want to walk up. The big room is 8.2 acres of cave with things like the Bottomless Pit, Giant Dome, Rock of Ages, and Painted Grotto. The bats of the cave you don’t see on your walking tour but if you choose to go to the park at night about 6:30 pm the bats leave the cave. It is a sight to see all of these bats leaving the cave to go feed for the evening. The cavern is a cool place to visit but I would suggest to go and see the cavern in the day and the bats at night. I did not see the bats but everyone I talked to about it says it is something to do, next time for me. While in the Big Room, I noticed a rope hanging from the ceiling and read about some cave climbers who sent a couple of helium balloons into the ceiling with the rope attached. The rope was then wrapped around some rocks in the roof. Then the crazy climbers climbed up the rope and found some new caves! The rope is still hanging out of the ceiling for future climbers.
