The Midwest is packed with cool sights and neat attractions — you just have to know where to look!
You don’t always need big mountains to have cave systems, and the myriad of underground caverns sprinkled throughout the Midwest are a testament to it! Here are just a few of the closest caves you can visit from right here in the heart of Chicago.
7 popular caves closest to Chicago
Bear Cave
Distance from Chicago: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Bear Cave is a small, naturally formed cave located in Buchanan, Michigan and is the only cave in the immediate Great Lakes region. As such, it hosts plenty of tourists throughout the year!
Bear Cave has had a decent amount of action and intrigue associated with it in the last couple of centuries. It was first discovered by a pack of boy scouts and was reportedly named after a bear that lived in the caverns. The cavern was famously used as a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, as a speakeasy during the Prohibition and as a hideout for a bank robbery in 1875.
The cave was featured in the 1903 silent film "The Great Train Robbery," (which is considered to be one of the first Western films ever made) and in the 1976 film “The Shootist” starring John Wayne.
Ledge View Nature Center
Distance from Chicago: 3 hours
Ledge View Nature Center in Calumet County, Wisconsin, is home to two cave systems, Carolyn's Caverns and Montgomery Cave, both of which were formed by the action of water on dolomite bedrock over thousands of years back when the Great Lakes region first formed.
Carolyn's Caverns is the larger of the two cave systems at about 1,000 feet long, featuring a variety of cave formations including stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone and draperies. You know, your classic cave-y finds. The cave also has a number of small crawl passages which are only accessible to experienced cavers.
Montgomery Cave is smaller than Carolyn's Caverns, but the tight passages and vertical drops make it more challenging to explore. This is the one to visit if you’re a more experienced caver!
Both caves were once used to stash moonshine back in the Prohibition Era, though the only things stored in the caverns today are bats and bugs.
Cave of the Mounds
Distance from Chicago: 3 hours
The Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin is about 2 miles long and contains over 400 rooms and passages, making it a popular destination for experienced cavers and amateur spelunkers alike!
The cave's temperature is also a constant 50 degrees Fahrenheit, thanks to the consistent ground temperature, so it’s a great place to visit all year ‘round!
Maquoketa Caves State Park
Distance from Chicago: 3 hours, 15 minutes
This Iowa state park features an expansive underground complex of caves, caverns, tight squeezes and narrow passageways. Of the 13 caves accessible to visitors, the most popular is the Dancehall Cave which measures around 1,100 feet long and is full of cool cave-y stuff to look at.
Other caves in the Maquoketa Caves State Park complex feature archaeological discoveries, unique limestone pillars, steep drops and challenging passageways that are suited only to experienced hikers.
Crystal Lake Cave
Distance from Chicago: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Another Iowan treasure, Crystal Lake Cave is named for the small lake found shimmering below a ceiling of colorful stalactites deep in this limestone cave. In addition to the underground lake, the winding passageways and up-close formations are a dream to explore on your own or with a tour guide!
Bluespring Caverns
Distance from Chicago: 4 hours, 15 minutes
Prior to the early 20th century, the original entrance to these Indiana caverns also functioned as a depository for water from an underground spring into the White River, emptying the water from a cave mouth eroded from surrounding limestone and shale.
A dam built in 1913 sank the entrance below water, but a few decades later another entrance opened up after a sinkhole collapsed in a dairy farmer’s field. Today, visitors can tour the newly uncovered Bluespring Caverns by boat and see what an actively-growing, water-saturated cave looks like!
Twin Caves
Distance from Chicago: 4 hours, 30 minutes
Twin Caves is a pair of cave entrances connected by a short river at the bottom of a sinkhole within the boundaries of Spring Mill State Park in Lawrence County, Indiana.
The river is an exposed section of a mostly-underground stream that originates as Mosquito Creek several miles southeast of the park and which sinks into the Upper Twin Cave system. The stream then comes out briefly at Twin Caves and flows into the Lower Twin Cave, re-emerging briefly at Bronson Cave shortly to the northwest, then flowing into the Shawnee Cave System.
It sounds a little complicated, we know (after all, aren’t all rivers kind of underground anyway?), but the resulting natural phenomenon is an underground river tour through some of the caverns! Definitely well worth the visit.
Though a boat tour is just 20 minutes long, it’s certainly plenty of time to check out the formations in the watery passageway!
Just because northeastern Illinois doesn’t have an abundance of caverns to visit, it doesn't mean there aren’t caves to explore near Chicago! If you live in or near our luxury Chicago apartments, then these are the places to check out next time you’re looking for a little spelunking!
Have fun!
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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/uschel
Colleen Ford is a South African who now lives on Oahu in Hawai'i. She loves to travel, camp, spearfish and hike. She's also part of a super cool canoe club and is pretty decent at it. Colleen enjoys Star Wars and also not being cold ever.
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