Cascade Caverns

Cascade Caverns is just a few miles from the Cave without a Name.  It’s also privately owned and operated.  The Cascade Caverns is at the low point in a series of rolling hills, so every time it rains hard the caverns flood.  We visited a few years ago but couldn’t visit the Cascade Caverns because it had been raining and was flooded.

The owners built a dam and some retaining walls around the entrance to try and minimize the flooding, but water gets in from other cracks and openings.

The Cascade Caverns are similar in size and types of formations to the Cave without a Name.  One unique feature, however, is that at the lowest point on the tour there is a pond with a sinkhole to a lower cavern that is mostly underwater.  There is a tour down into the lower cavern but we didn’t take it (would have freaked me out totally with my claustrophobia and fear of water).

It was discovered when a farmer’s cow disappeared.  People were helping to look for it and they found the poor thing about 30 feet down a big hole.  The cow was killed by the fall.  But, they discovered the caverns at that time and the owner started exploring it.

There is a primitive campground on the property and while on the tour the guide explained that the campground was actually right above the part of the cavern we were standing in! 

Here are some pictures:

The Cave Without a Name

The Cave without a Name is a natural limestone solutional cave in central Texas.   It is about 60 feet below the surface and has numerous formations.  It has several fairly large rooms as well as narrow passages. There was one passage of about 20 feet where you have to bend at the waist, but it was wide so I didn’t get too claustrophobic.

The cave is privately owned and operated.  When it was first discovered and opened to the public the owner didn’t know what to call it, so it was called Cave without a Name for several years.  Then the owner held a contest to give it a name and offered what was a large reward in that time (about the 1920s).  He renamed it but the local people and a lot of tourists thought it was a new cave and were not happy to find it was the same cave they had previously visited.  So, the owner put the original name back.

Here are some pictures: