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ONLINE RESERVATIONS! (Book Until July 2008)
The Rotunda-Throne Room tour is open year-round and the Big Room tour from October 15 - April 15.
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P.O. Box 1849 Benson, Arizona 85602 Reservations (520) 586-CAVE (2283) Call 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except state holidays. |
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The park is located nine miles south of I-10, off State Hwy 90, exit 302. Park Hours Closed Christmas Day. Reservations taken from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (MST), daily. |
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Fees Reservation Fee: $3.00 (included in cave tour fee) Cave Tours |
Park Facilities
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All tours are guided by a trained tour guide. Reservations are strongly recommended and can be made by calling: (520)586-CAVE. The cave averages 68°F and 98% humidity year round. All cave trails are barrier-free. Due to wet surfaces and changes in grades, strollers and walkers are not allowed on the tours.
Special Reminders
- Touching or breaking formations is punishable by law.
- No photography or video cameras allowed on cave tour.
- No walkers allowed on cave tour.
- Small children should be carried in arms or in front pack. No baby backpacks or strollers allowed on cave tour.
- Cave tour trail is barrier-free.
- The park, including the Discovery Center, is accessible for persons with disabilities.
- No food, drink (including bottled water), gum, or tobacco products allowed on cave tours.
- No pets, except assist dogs.
- No littering.
Rotunda/Throne Room Tour: Length: 1/2 mile Time: 1 1/2 hr. (leaving approximately every 20 minutes), tours available year-round.
On this tour you will discover the role water has played in the creation of Kartchner Caverns. You will see some of the tiniest, most delicate formations found in the cave, as well as the largest column in Arizona. This tour includes an up-close look at the variety of formations and colors that makes this cave one of the top ten in the world. And for you music lovers...the music that's played at the end of this tour is entitled "Adiemus" (Virgin Records Ltd.).
Information for Parents:
It is not uncommon for young children, six years and under, to become uncomfortable in the cave environment. In these instances, the child and parent will be allowed to leave the cave tour, for their well-being and safety. Please inquire upon check-in, if you have any concerns.
Big Room Tour: Length: 1/2 mile Time: 1 1/2 hr. (leaving approximately every 30 minutes), tours available October 15 - April 15.
The Kartchner Caverns story is one of amazing discoveries...both past and present. Stand where the discoverers first entered the cave. Marvel at the strange and colorful formations. Learn about cave inhabitants, both ancient and living. As scientific studies continue, discoveries are yet to be made. The Big Room tour is a longer and more physically challenging tour. Children age 6 and under are not allowed on the tour.
Prior to your tour, please be sure to review Accessibility Information and Special Tour Reminders
For information about earning a Girl Scout patch at Kartchner Caverns State Park, contact the Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine Council at www.girlscoutsaz.org
Approximate Driving Distances from:
- Flagstaff - 310 miles (498 km)
- Phoenix - 160 miles (257 km)
- Benson - 9 miles (14 km)
- Sierra Vista - 19 miles (30km)
- Tombstone - 28 miles (45 km)
- Tucson Airport - 49 miles (78 km)
Cave History
In November 1974 two young cavers, Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts, were exploring the limestone hills at the base of the Whetstone Mountains. In the bottom of a sinkhole they found a narrow crack leading into the hillside. Warm, moist air flowed out, signaling the existence of a cave. After several hours of crawling, they entered a pristine cavern.
It wasn't until February 1978 that Tenen and Tufts told the property owners, James and Lois Kartchner, about their amazing discovery.
During the four years of secret exploration, the discoverers realized that the cave's extraordinary variety of colors and formations must be preserved.
The cave's existence became public knowledge in 1988 when its purchase was approved as an Arizona State Park. Extraordinary precautions have been taken during its development to conserve the cave's near-pristine condition.
Nature's Creation
It all began with a drop of water...A shallow inland sea covered this area 330 million years ago, depositing layers of sediment that eventually hardened into limestone. Millions of years later this Escabrosa limestone along with other rock layers uplifted to form the Whetstone Mountains. The Escabrosa limestone , due to a type of tremor or fault, down-dropped thousands of feet relative to the mountains above.
Rainwater, made slightly acidic by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and soil, penetrated cracks in the down-dropped limestone block and slowly dissolved passages in it. Later, lowering groundwater levels left behind vast, air-filled rooms.
Kartchner Caverns' wide variety of decorations, called "speleothems", began forming drop by drop over the next 200,000 years.
Water seeping from the surface dissolves minerals on its trip through the limestone. Once it reaches the cave, the trapped carbon dioxide escapes from the water. No longer able to hold the dissolved calcite, the drop deposits its tiny mineral load. Over time, these minerals have created the beautiful speleothems and variety of colors found in the cave. Kartchner Caverns is a "living" cave; the formations are still growing!
Bats and other cave creatures
During the summer months, the cave's Big Room serves as a nursery roost for over 1,000 female cave myotis bats. The pregnant females return to Kartchner Caverns around the end of April, where they give birth to a single pup in late June. The babies remain in the roost each evening while their mothers forage for insects in the surrounding countryside. During the summer the colony consumes about half a ton of insects, consisting of moths, flying ants, beetles, mosquitoes and termites. Mothers and their offspring will leave mid-September, to begin their migration for their winter hibernation roost. These bats provide the only link between the ecosystem of the cave and the surface. After returning to the bat roost from their nightly forays, the bats excrete waste, forming large guano piles. Most of the other life forms found in the cave depend on these guano piles for their food. Fungi and bacteria consume the guano first. These are in turn eaten by nematodes, mites, isopods, amphipods, and book lice. These are then eaten by spiders, scorpions, mites, millipedes, and centipedes. Scavengers, like crickets and beetle larvae, clean up the leftovers. The bats' guano provides the energy needed to run this complex food chain.
Paleontology of the cave
While exploring the cave, paleontologists, those who study prehistoric life, uncovered an 86,000 year record of the local faunal community. The finds included the following: skeletons of an 86,000 year old Shasta ground sloth, a 34,000 year old horse, and an 11,000 year old bear, as well as terrestrial snails, a clam, a toad, lizards, rabbits, snakes, a coyote, a ringtail, and many species of rodents. These discoveries have lead paleontologists to declare Kartchner Caverns a treasure house of information on the local fossil history of the uplands around the San Pedro River Valley.
Cave Formations
The formations that decorate caves are called "speleothems." Usually formations are composed of layers of calcite called travertine deposited by water. The form a speleothem takes is determined by whether the water drips, flows, seeps, condenses, or pools.
Kartchner Caverns is home to:
- one of the world's longest soda straw stalactites - 21 feet 2 inches
(Throne Room) - the tallest and most massive column in Arizona, Kubla Khan: 58 feet tall (Throne Room)
- the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room)
- the first reported occurrence of "turnip" shields (Big Room)
- the first cave occurrence of "birdsnest" needle quartz formations
- many other unusual formations such as shields, totems, helictites, and rimstone dams.
Please Remember...
Many of the formations you will see have been continuously growing for tens of thousands of years. The formations grow very slowly and are extremely fragile. When visiting remember that formations damaged even by accident will stop growing. To avoid damage to the cave and injury to yourself please refrain from touching any of the formations.
Hiking and Walking Trails
The Guindani Trail (#398), located on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains in the Coronado National Forest, is 4.2 miles in length (first mile is an easy walk, next 2/3 of trail is moderate difficulty, and the last leg is strenuous). This is a shared-use, non-motorized trail that is well-marked with directional signs.
Elevations range from 4900' at the park trailhead to over 7000' in the summits along the crest of the Whetstone Mountains. The Whetstones are a fault-block mountain range with a variety of exposed geological formations. Vegetation is mesquite-invaded Chihuahaun semi-desert grassland at the lower elevations and open oak-juniper woodland on the higher slopes.
Access to the Guindani Trail is located on the west side of Kartchner Caverns State Park campgrounds; a kiosk marks entrance to trail. For more information, contact: Sierra Vista Ranger District, 5990 W. Hwy 92, Hereford, AZ 85615 or call (520) 378-0311.
The Foothills Loop Trail (loop) is approximately 2.5 miles, rated moderate to difficult. There are two access points, one at the northeast end of the Discovery Center parking area and one at the Hummingbird Garden.
This is a hiking trail, with no bicycles or motorized vehicles permitted. The trail climbs the limestone hill north of the cave and descends into the wash that follows the fault between the Whetstone Block and the San Pedro Block. A short spur trail at the upper portion of the Foothills Loop Trail leads visitors to the scenic Mountain Viewpoint.
Informational signs along the Foothills Loop Trail will discuss such trail highlights as the foothills, scenic view, riparian area, bedrock mortar and the Native Americans that inhabited the area.
Some of the vegetation seen on the Foothills Loop Trail hike include: Ocotillo, Creosote Bush, Mesquite, Desert Broom, Acacia, Wait-a-Minute Bush, Scrub Oak, Barrel Cactus, Prickly Pear, Buckhorn Cholla, and Hackberry.
The Hummingbird Garden Walk is located on the southwest side of the Discovery Center. The walk is lined with a variety of local vegetation. Some of the varieties include: Catclaw Acacia, Velvet Honeysuckle, Beargrass, Yellow Bells, Sandpaper Verbena, Black Spine Prickly Pear, Autumn Sage, Agave, Aloe, Desert Bird of Paradise, Indigo Bush, and Desert Spoon.
For more information please visit any of the following sites:
- Information for School Groups
- Information for Tour Group Operators
- Clickable Map of Caverns
- Special Tour Reminders
- The Arizona State Parks Department is Concerned for Ecological Impact of Development Adjacent to Kartchner Caverns State Park
For more information about Kartchner Caverns State Park® please visit the Friends of Kartchner Caverns State Park at http://www.friendsofkartchner.org or http://explorethecaverns.com.
For more area information, please inquire with the Benson/San Pedro Valley Chamber of Commerce.