My family is on a quest to visit all the caves in Pennsylvania. So far, we’ve hit four.

Indian Echo Caverns

Echo Dell
368 Middletown Rd
Hummelstown, PA 17036
(717) 566-8131
http://indianechocaverns.com/

We visited this one in 2008. I forgot to take pictures of it.

Penns Cave

Penn’s Cave
222 Penns Cave Road
Centre Hall, PA 16828
(814) 364-1664
http://pennscave.com/
Glide through the all-water limestone cavern on the tour, given entirely by boat. About 14 miles and 22 minutes southeast from Bellefonte.

We saw this twice: in 2015 and 2017. I didn’t take many pictures of this cave.

Woodward Cave

Woodward Cave
Route 45 in Centre County, Woodward, PA 16882
Mid-way between State College and Lewisburg
814-349-9800
www.woodwardcave.com
Open 10-4 on Fridays
27 miles east from Bellefonte (42 minutes), near Bald Eagle State Forest

We visited this one in June 2017.

Laurel Caverns

Laurel Caverns is located off route 40 east of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. The GPS address is 1065 Skyline Drive, Farmington, PA 15437. https://laurelcaverns.com/. Nearby sites are: The Summit Inn, Fort Necessity National Park, Nemacolin Woodlands, Ohiopyle State Park, Kentuck Knob, and Fallingwater. The cave temperature is a constant 52 degrees.

We took the combination guided tour and self-exploration. The guided tour is described this way: “This 30 minute guided tour shows the passages seen when David Cale took the first guided tour into Laurel Caverns on its opening day in 1964. Today, it represents what one sees while walking the last 500 feet of the self-guided tour. Though there are some slopes, there are no steps. It is the proper choice for those who, for whatever reason, would prefer to avoid stairways and the strenuous 200 foot uphill climb on the self-guided tour.”

The self guided tour was described this way: “This 45-50 minute tour covers three passages that were added to the 1964 tour with the construction of steps between 1973 and 1990. Because it involves many steps and its most distant point, the Fault-line Room, is 170 feet below the Visitors’ Center, this option is not recommended for those who would find walking up three flights of stairs to be challenging.” This tour was a loop that went 17 stories below ground, past a waterfall, and then back up lots of steps and steep hills to the surface.

This cave was interesting in that it has 4 MILES of passages underground. No, we didn’t walk them all. There are special spelunking tours for hardcore people who are willing to go down into the dark with lights and a guide.