Credit: Natural Stone Bridge and Caves Park. Since 1922, the park has offered visitors the opportunity to explore beyond the boundary of time, to touch and explore caves created millennia ago when the last Ice Age moved across the earth. Another unique feature is the clear underground Lost River, which flows seemingly without beginning or end. Here are six Northeast caves that offer various levels of exploration, as well as other activities nearby to round out a day trip. Polar Caves is a family-owned and operated nature attraction located in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Caverns/ Caves in Concord - New Hampshire. Your ad choices | WHILE YOU'RE THERE For something fun and different, try controlled rappelling. The Four Elements Salon in Westport, a salt cave in Massachusetts, has their very own salt cave. Walk down 48 steep steps to the cave entrance and board a motorboat for the hourlong cave tour ($16.50 adults, $8.75 ages 2-12). Tired of relying on the AC for relief? WHILE YOU'RE THERE Above ground, hike the 1/2-mile ecology trail and visit a garden with 300 varieties of plants. Von Dark's Tunnel of Terror, plus many more activities on 47 acres, you're sure to spend a refreshing day at the park. There's one place in New Hampshire where, no matter how hot it gets, it's always December. Kim Knox Beckius is a Connecticut-based travel writer, author, photographer, and editor. Beat summer heat at Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves in North Woodstock,... Venture Beneath the Green Mountains. Offered weekends only, it takes visitors ages 12 and older down 45 stories of rock into caves that are developed and still forming ($22). Other huge formations resemble the Statue of Liberty and Rock of Gibraltar. Spurred along by changes in the atmosphere involving wind, water, sand erosion and powerful shifts of earth, it can take thousands of years for caves to be carved out. Set in the Lehigh Valley, this 250,000-year-old limestone cavern has five chambers, with crystals, that can be explored on foot. At least a half-dozen large caves within a day's drive of Long Island are open to the public. One of the most popular trails in Acadia actually includes a fair few little caves you can pop into. A family enters the large marble cave entrance at Natural Stone Bridge and Caves Park in upstate Pottersville, about 230 miles from New York City. Head for New Hampshire: home to New England's only commercial caves and one of New England's largest water parks. On weekend evenings, the shadowy two-hour lantern tour is an evocative way to explore the depths ($35, reservations required). More challenging is the "upper spelunking" tour -- a three-hour look at the more geologically developed parts of the cave. The most intense experience is the "lower spelunking" tour. The two-hour adventure tour sends visitors in coveralls, gloves and lighted helmets crawling through a passage, across a dry streambed and up a 107-foot-high dome of rock called the Great Rotunda ($108, includes gear rental). California Privacy Rights | Natural Caverns in the New England States Explore Boulder Caves in the Granite State. You'll walk a 3/4-mile loop along a boardwalk overlooking the river, past waterfalls, including 35-foot Paradise Falls. The Polar Caves were created some fifty thousand years ago as the third continental glacier blanketed the White Mountains in northern New Hampshire. Not only are caves fun to explore, they have the natural advantage of always being cooler and less humid than the steamy world above. Caverns/ Caves in Mystic - Mystic Country. New England Caves. Cookie Settings | A one-hour "family tour" takes you down 170 feet on steps and a slanted floor for a 1/2-mile walk ($11 adults, $8-$9 school-age children). WHILE YOU'RE THERE Kids can play games ranging from climbing a "boulder" wall to exploring the crystal mine or digging for dinosaur bone casts. The self-guided daily tour ($16 adults, $12 ages 4-12) leads you 300 feet down into a gorge. Participants must be at least 9 years old and wear long pants and a long-sleeve shirt for protection while crawling up and over rocks along the way ($16, reservations required). You'll want to bring a light jacket and wear sturdy sneakers or hiking shoes. Advertise with Newsday | Please enable notifications or using normal browsing mode. Contact Newsday | Polar Caves Park in Rumney, New Hampshire, is another cool spot that's open daily from spring through late October (weather conditions permitting). Saturday evenings, you may do this tour with a guide by lantern light and headlamp followed by s'mores around a fire ($25 adults, $20 ages 4-12). WHEN TO GO Daily (except holidays) year-round. 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Caverns/ Caves in Somerville - Massachusetts. 1712 Lost River Rd., Route 112W, North Woodstock, N.H. Lost River is a boulder cave with 11 chambers under and between a tumble of gigantic granite slabs formed 300 million years ago in the rugged White Mountains. Top 10 Road Trip Routes in the Northeastern U.S. The 25th of December to be precise. Subscription terms | Reprints & permissions | No matter how high summer temperatures soar, New Hampshire offers fun ways to chill out. Watching the mercury climb and climb? Other Ideas for "Beat the Summer Heat" Getaways in New Hampshire, If you want to weather-proof your family's summer getaway, book a stay at one of North Conway, New Hampshire's. More than 500 couples have been married on the illuminated heart-shaped bridal altar. Want to beat the summer heat? A summer-only four-hour adventure tour involves wading and crawling through tight, billion-year-old surface caves before passing through a waterfall into a river and floating down a tunnel of caves ($80, ages 13 and older). More experienced spelunkers who don't mind getting dirty can opt for hands-on tours that call for maneuvering through tight spaces. There are two neat cave attractions to explore in New Hampshire's White Mountains region. A new section of boardwalk over Paradise Falls brings you to a scenic mountaintop high above the gorge, river, granite pothole and vernal pool. Privacy Policy | You'll be harnessed for the three drops off the lighted cliff inside the cave ($33, available Memorial Day-Labor Day). They're located about a 40-minute drive apart, so you can see them both in a single day if you're a fan of caves. Rides range from those appropriate for the tiniest of tots to big thrillers including Racing Rapids and the utterly dark, roller coaster-like thrill of Black Hole. You might be using private browsing or have notifications blocked. WHILE YOU'RE THERE Pair the water tour with a 90-minute guided drive and stroll through the 1,500-acre wildlife park and working farm ($30.95 adults, $16.95 ages 2-12). The East's largest marble cave entrance leads to what is said to be some of North America's oldest rocks, where you can see tourmaline and garnet in the walls. Set in the Lehigh Valley, this 250,000-year-old limestone cavern has five chambers, with crystals, that can be explored on foot. Start from the Gorham Mountain Trail parking area located on the Park Loop Road. Caverns/ Caves in Springfield - … Water Country boasts New England's largest wave pool: It's 700,000 gallons of water! WHEN TO GO Daily March-November, weekends in December. Plan a visit to Howe Caverns in New York State, next. This 6 million-year-old cavern is the largest that's open to the public in the Northeast -- it's also New York's second-most-visited natural attraction, after Niagara Falls. Plan small day trips, big getaways and more. Caught the cave bug? Adventure awaits in more than 20 caves in Vermont, the Green Mountain State… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_caves_in_the_United_Kingdom The daily 80-minute traditional walking tour ($23 adults, $19 ages 12-15, $12 ages 5-11) leads you farther downward, through serpentine corridors, past stalagmites, dripping stalactites, flowstone and other huge formations such as Titan's Trumpet and Pipe Organ, to an underground boat ride on Lake Venus. The Winding Way is sculpted by excellent examples of multicolored erosion. Besides stalagmite and stalactite formations, you'll see mineral growths and rock formations that seem to defy gravity. WHEN TO GO Daily (except holidays) year-round. 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