TOURS & TRIPS Walk Tour Today's visitors can enjoy our newly developed platform, stairs and walkway system which makes navigating through this highly decorated, vertically oriented cavern a pleasure. Opened in September 2000, we offer 45-minute guided walking tours every day of the week, year round, showcasing a spectacular variety of cave formations. Here, flowstones interspersed with stalactites, draperies and helictites compete for space above the stairways. In the Colossal Room, a platform lodged in the wall 70-feet from the cavern floor gives small glimpses of the jewel-like lake below. The vivid blue color of the water is caused by natural occurring calcium bicarbonate. Massive arrays of rare, sparkling white helictite crystals adorn the Landmark Room for which Black Chasm Cavern was named a National Natural Landmark. This is truly a magical place. Make sure to stop, look around and really take things in. The vertical orientation of the cave made it almost impossible to explore until we developed our environmentally friendly tour route. This means that unlike other caves in the area, Black Chasm is nearly pristine. The formations are gorgeous. The Landmark Room's ceiling is crammed with beautiful stalactites, soda straws and helictites. Large flowstone formations cascade from the walls, decorated with sparkling crystals. We're not the only ones who think it's magically beautiful... we've actually hosted a wedding ceremony inside the Landmark Room, making for a truly unique and special event for all who attended. Visitor Center We're proud of our beautiful, craftsman style visitor center at Black Chasm Cavern. With 3,000 square feet of floor space, we've worked to bring the best nature themed, environmental and scientific merchandise we can find for our discerning visitors to enjoy. Since Black Chasm's trademark is a Chinese dragon helictite (pictured here), we also have quite a bit of dragon merchandise to choose from. In addition, there are rocks, fossils, geodes, books, science kits, ornaments, toys and souvenirs. There's literally something here for everyone. Along with all the cool merchandise, we have some displays on Black Chasm Cavern, including its connection with the Matrix movies. Prior to production starting on the Matrix Reloaded movie, sculptors, painters and set designers arrived at Black Chasm Cavern to take photos, video and make sketches of the chambers and formations. This field work helped them to construct a cave set, known as Zion, that looked very realistic. When the filming was finished, imitation cave formations made of styrofoam used in the set were donated to Black Chasm. You can see them on display in the visitor center and on the deck. Above Ground Activities/Amenities Gemstone mining flumes, Visitor Center, Restrooms, Picnic Tables, Zen garden hike. Education School field trips at Black Chasm Cavern are very popular with school and scout groups .In addition to on-site education, we have developed lesson plans that include puzzles, art and craft projects and instructions for simple scientific experiments to demonstrate the processes that shape the underground environment. Follow the links below to see more detail on our web site: School Field Trips Lesson Plans Kids Pages