Exploring Caves in Virginia

rappelling into a 75-foot Banes Drop in Newberry-Banes Cave System and Pig Hole Cave

Commercial caves offer trails and lights, so visitors can safely explore. After paying a fee, tourists follow well-known routes as guides tell both tales and truths about underground ecosystems.

Exploring wild caves is also a popular activity. Caving requires a different approach to the experience. A caver's first experience is typically with a group of experienced people who have already explored the wild cave. They know the routes to follow and the dead ends to avoid, following memory or maps prepared previously by cavers who belong to a local grotto.

exploring Queen's Bath

Caving can be a dangerous sport. A rainstorm on the surface, perhaps unknown to people already underground or even on the other side of a mountain, may cause streams in a cave to rise. cavers navigating through tight channels may be isolated from the entrance when water rises underground, or trapped in a section of the cave from which there is no escape.

Mud and water make it difficult to get a grip and control descent when sliding down slopes. Vertical shafts that provide paths between layers dissolved out of limestone may require using ropes. In 2024, a caver died in Giles County after a 100-foot fall.¹

In the caving community, people who go into wild caves unprepared and without appropriate equipment (such as reliable backup lights) are known as "spelunkers." A particular concern is that cave formations and sensitive species not be damaged by inappropriate caving, and that relationships remain positive with landowners who can withhold permission for exploring caves on private property. Some caves are gated to control access, especially if endangered species rely upon the site.

Cave rescue is a challenge. Space constraints make it difficult to move an injured or incapacitated person to the surface; carrying someone in a Stokes litter is rarely feasible. A common comment within grottoes is "cavers rescue spelunkers."

65-foot Balcony Drop in Dead Cave