California has it all! I mean it has Disney, the Redwoods, the beaches, desert, mountains, waterfalls, city! You name it and California’s got it. So no surprise when I tell you that California is pretty amazing underground as well! California has more than a thousand known caves you can explore. One of those amazing caves is Black Chasm Caverns!
This natural landmark shows the true beauty that lies underneath the surface of California. Located about an hour east of Sacramento in the small town of Volcano is this historic cave that you can tour. Not only do you get to an underground tour to see some of the rarest cave formations, but you also get to hear the history of the goldrush that settled this area. History, beauty, and fun is what awaits you at Black Chasm Caverns.
Basic Information:
HOURS: everyday 9am-6pm
TOUR HOURS: first come first serve, first tour is at 9am and last tour is at 6pm
ADMISSION: $20 adults, $12 ages 5-12, FREE ages 4 and under
LOCATION: 15701 Pioneer Volcano Rd, Volcano, CA 95689
What’s At The Visitor Center:
When visiting Black Chasm Caverns you aren’t just getting a cave experience! This landmark offers multiple activities; hiking, a gift shop, a cave tour, and gold mining. When you first arrive to the visitor center, just go straight in and buy your tickets and find out when the next tour is available. We got there right as a tour left so we had 40 minutes to kill.
Luckily they offer other activities in the area to help you kill that time. First is the gift shop! The gift shop is made up of souvenirs of all things rock! There are all kinds of rock statues, rock rings, rock everything! You get the point, lots of rocks.
Second thing you can do is mine for gold. At the front deck, purchase a $5 bag to take outside to the mining water chute. There are trays in the water fumes that you can use to pan for gold.
Third is the Miner’s Trail. Not gonna lie this was my absolute favorite part of visiting Black Chasm! The trail takes you to a section of large marbled rocks that were hydraulic blasted during the gold rush era. It is so pretty and a super easy trail.
Guided Tour Review:
Normally when I hear places have a guided tour, I tend to avoid them, due to my kids not being old enough to actually listen to tour guides. Tends to take away the fun of a tour, when you are too distracted with kids. Haha! But we decided to give this one a shot, and it turned out pretty good.
Our tour guide was really friendly and involved the kids and asked them questions and even showed the kids what different formations looked like. At the beginning of the tour, the tour guide told my 3 year old son that there was a rock crocodile and my son was so excited the whole tour to see the rock crocodile!
The tour is 50 minutes long, but the tour guides are animated, friendly, and don’t make it seem like such a long tour. If you think about it 50 minutes is not a long tour! In reality it is about a 30 minute tour. Then 10 minutes to ask questions and take pictures. The last 10 minutes are really for the climb back out of the cave.
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Should I Take My Kids?
Caves personally make me anxious! I love them because they are amazing, but I also hate the feeling of being enclosed. Guess you could say I am kind of claustrophobic. So when my husband suggested we go and take our 4 tiny kids with us my anxiety bumped up a level. But I can say I honestly LOVED visiting the caverns and my kids did too!
Reasons I thought this cave was great for my kids:
- It was a cave so of course it was cool and fascinating to my kids. Who wouldn’t think it was cool!?
- The tour was quick. The total time you are in the cave is about 45 minutes. While in the cave the tour maybe lasts about 30 minutes before you get to just take pictures and head back to the surface. This makes it easier with kids as they aren’t expected to just spend hours listening to someone talk.
- The tour guides are animated and very interactive. The tours are actually interesting, even my 5 year old and 3 year old enjoyed listening to the tour guide.
- The walk is very short. The actual walk through the cave is a very short distance, so its not like your kids have to walk very far.
- The fence around the path is solid and there is no way a kid can slip through it. My biggest concern about taking my kids in the cave was safety. Caves are notorious for their great depths and endless chasms, but there is no way your kid is going to slip through those bars and fall.
Things I didn’t enjoy about the cave with my kids:
- The stairs are super steep! Your kid might not fall through the cave, but they can certainly fall down the stairs and get hurt. My husband walked in front of our 2 oldest and I walked behind them, just so that we could make sure they were safe and didn’t trip down the stairs.
- Though I enjoyed the tour and for the most part my kids did, my kids can only handle so much before they are just bored and done. I mean my oldest is 5, so what 5 year old do you know is good at just listening to someone else talk for 30 minutes straight?
- Due to the stairs being so steep our 2 year old couldn’t handle walking the stairs, but due to the close walls we couldn’t just put him in a hiking carrier. We had to carry our 2 year old until we got to the bottom of the caverns where there was a short flat boardwalk area. We then had to carry him all the way back, lets just say it was quite an arm workout.
- You are not allowed to touch the walls. Anything that involves not touching is difficult with kids. You walk right next to the cave walls for the first half of the tour and so I spent the first half of the tour telling my kids don’t touch.
We did the caverns with our 4 kids, ages 5, 3, 2, and 5 months and though it was stressful; it was so worth it. I mean what activity isn’t stressful with that age group of kids. The caverns had quite a bit more stress than other activities, but we still all left having had a good time. I wouldn’t say this is a super great place to take young kids, but like I said it is manageable!
Exploring The Caverns:
Know Before You Go:
- The cave doesn’t really get that cold. It stays around 50 degrees Fahrenheit all year long, so no worries about wearing a jacket. You will be climbing stairs the majority of the time and that keeps your body moving so you won’t get cold.
- The stairs are super steep so if you cannot handle steep stairs, this is not a good cave for you to visit.
- The tour is about 50 minutes long in total.
- Some of the spaces are tight in the caverns so you can not wear a back pack or a hiking carrier into the caverns. If you do have an infant, you can fit with a front carrier. Tours are first come first serve with the first tour starting at 9am and the last at 6pm. Those are the only set times for tours, the rest is according to when people arrive and whether a tour is going on at the moment.
- There are no restrooms in the caverns, so go before your tour starts.
The Entrance:
As the tour starts they will explain the rules such as not touching the walls, don’t bring anything unnecessary in, and hold onto the stuff you do bring. I highly recommend that you bring a phone lanyard or wrist strap for your phone! You can wrap the strap around your wrist so that if you are taking pictures you don’t drop your phone. If you drop it they will not fish it out for you! It is gone for good. Make sure your keys are somewhere that won’t fall out!
The tour will start at the entrance of the cave, which just looks like a barred jail door to a giant hole.
Inside The Cave:
Immediately as you enter the cave you will begin descending down the stairs. The majority of the tour is stairs. The 5 flights of stairs are super steep so make sure you watch your feet and if you are really tall, make sure you watch your head cause there are several spots where you could hit your head.
The beginning of the cave will give you are view of the descent you are making, it doesn’t feel far as you are walking, but it is quite the distance and that is why the stairs are so steep. There are 2 bigger halls that you will stop at on the tour. The first is pretty dark, but it will show you the depth of the caverns, once you get past that section your jaws is gonna drop!
The large section at the end of the boardwalk is the main event and it is gorgeous! This section is very well lite and it is very spaced. I just can’t even describe how beautiful it is! I mean look at the pictures and see for yourself!
Distinct Features Of The Cave
One of the number one reasons Black Chasm Caverns is so unique is the rare helicite formations throughout the cave. Only about 5% of the known caves in the world have these special formations. To me it almost looked like icicles coming out of the walls, but they didn’t just point down! These crazy formations were twisty and curvy and pointing in all different directions, and they almost looked like crystals! It is so beautiful!!
History Of The Cave:
On the tour not only will you hear about the science of the cave, you will also hear the history of the cave! This cave was originally used during the gold rush era to of course mine for gold. Well when gold wasn’t found the miner that owned the property began to give tours of it to make money.
Sad part is you can actually see where people had come an tore off some of the stalactites and stalagmites. Though sad to see the caverns abused in the past, it is really interesting to not only hear about the past, but to see it as well.
The Best Thing To Do At Black Chasm Caverns: The Miner’s Trail
Okay I will admit the caverns are amazing, but you HAVE to hike the Miner’s Trail! A lot, and I mean A LOT of people skip this trail, but THIS IS THE COOLEST HIKE! I am putting this all in caps, because I do not want you to skip it!! You can get a map for this hike at the visitor center and it might be about a half a mile hike. It is super easy, and a very quick hike.
So why should you do this hike…..well let me tell you! Back in the days of the Gold Rush Era, the miners would hydraulic blast the giant rocks. Now what is left are these dark gray/black marbleized rocks and they are huge!
Have you ever seen Frozen!? I am pretty sure that the rock trolls from this movie were made out of the rocks at this place!! The rocks have such a beautiful color and design, plus they are covered in moss to give them more character!
My kids AND my husband had so much fun jumping on the rocks, exploring the tunnels and caves, and seeing how high they could get climbing. This trail is simply unbelievable, and you have to try it!
Just park your car at the dirt pull off on the road. The trail is not marked, but there is a slight pull off that you will see and I am sure you will notice the trail head from there. Like I said the trail is so easy, my 2 year old hiked the entire thing without any help.
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