cavewithoutaname46
Cave Without A Name, Kendall County, Texas - One of Texas' hidden treasures, in February 2009 the Cave Without A Name was designated an official Natural Landmark!
Despite the innumerable caves and caverns that dot the Texas landscape, there are only a handful of caves that are open to touring by the public. Running along the interstate, it's easy to spot the billboards for Natural Bridge Caverns, Inner Space Caverns, Cascade Caverns - but very few people have ever heard of the Cave Without A Name. In fact, despite living less than an hour away for over ten years, I had no knowledge of it until recently. Yet this little cave is just as interesting as any of the larger, more travelled tourist stops.
Located about ten miles northeast of Boerne at the end of twisty-turny Hill Country roads near the Guadalupe River, the Cave Without A Name led an unremarkable existence until the 1920's. Much like Longhorn Caverns, the cave was used by bootleggers during Prohibition. The cave was opened in 1939 as a tourist attraction, the name chosen by a local boy who decided the caves were too beautiful for a name.
For decades, the Cave Without A Name remained an obscure, out-of-the-way spot, known mostly by locals and advertised by small hand-made signs on the highway. Tragedy struck when the manager of the cave (and the owner's son) passed away while exploring a nearby complex known tragically as Dead Man's Cave for drainage channels. Despite this loss, the cave remains open.
Then in February 2009, the Cave Without A Name was designated an official National Landmark by the National Park Service, along with five other historic sites around the country. Fewer than 600 locations have been designated as National Landmarks since the inception of the program, and only six within the past decade.
At the end of Kreutzberg Road, there is a small visitor's center and gift shop. Stairs lead down to the caverns below, well-lit with several impressive speleological formations - stalagmites, stalactites, soda straws, flowstone, ribbons, rimstone. It's a short tour, but easy and level without difficulty, the tour group size is usually small and it is easy to get up close to the formations (but don't touch - it's still a live cave). Longer 'adventure tours' are available (the website says they have been suspended due to high water, but that was written in 2007 before the area's record drought). Definitely worth the visit for anyone interested in caves or spelunking. Pictures taken April 6, 2008.
For more information on the Cave Without A Name:
- Texas Speleological Survey Entry.
This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.
cavewithoutaname46
Cave Without A Name, Kendall County, Texas - One of Texas' hidden treasures, in February 2009 the Cave Without A Name was designated an official Natural Landmark!
Despite the innumerable caves and caverns that dot the Texas landscape, there are only a handful of caves that are open to touring by the public. Running along the interstate, it's easy to spot the billboards for Natural Bridge Caverns, Inner Space Caverns, Cascade Caverns - but very few people have ever heard of the Cave Without A Name. In fact, despite living less than an hour away for over ten years, I had no knowledge of it until recently. Yet this little cave is just as interesting as any of the larger, more travelled tourist stops.
Located about ten miles northeast of Boerne at the end of twisty-turny Hill Country roads near the Guadalupe River, the Cave Without A Name led an unremarkable existence until the 1920's. Much like Longhorn Caverns, the cave was used by bootleggers during Prohibition. The cave was opened in 1939 as a tourist attraction, the name chosen by a local boy who decided the caves were too beautiful for a name.
For decades, the Cave Without A Name remained an obscure, out-of-the-way spot, known mostly by locals and advertised by small hand-made signs on the highway. Tragedy struck when the manager of the cave (and the owner's son) passed away while exploring a nearby complex known tragically as Dead Man's Cave for drainage channels. Despite this loss, the cave remains open.
Then in February 2009, the Cave Without A Name was designated an official National Landmark by the National Park Service, along with five other historic sites around the country. Fewer than 600 locations have been designated as National Landmarks since the inception of the program, and only six within the past decade.
At the end of Kreutzberg Road, there is a small visitor's center and gift shop. Stairs lead down to the caverns below, well-lit with several impressive speleological formations - stalagmites, stalactites, soda straws, flowstone, ribbons, rimstone. It's a short tour, but easy and level without difficulty, the tour group size is usually small and it is easy to get up close to the formations (but don't touch - it's still a live cave). Longer 'adventure tours' are available (the website says they have been suspended due to high water, but that was written in 2007 before the area's record drought). Definitely worth the visit for anyone interested in caves or spelunking. Pictures taken April 6, 2008.
For more information on the Cave Without A Name:
- Texas Speleological Survey Entry.
This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.