Spring Mill State Park Twin Caves Boat Tour

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I shared a couple of weeks ago that our family visited Spring Mill State Park over the July 4th holiday. In that post, I told you about their beautiful and quintessential Pioneer Village.

But that’s not all that Spring Mill has to offer. Today, I want to tell you about another of the fun mini field trips within this park — Twin Caves Boat Tour.

Most of the caves in Kentucky, Indiana, and other southeastern states are closed to tourists because of a fungus that is killing off the bat population — White Nose Syndrome. Spring Mill has several caves. The springs from these caves are what led pioneers to settle here and build an industrial village in the early 1800s. But because of this bat fungus, you can’t visit any of the caves except one — one of the Twin Caves. We were able to tour this one by boat. We all had to use hand sanitizer, the tour guide wore gloves, and we were admonished not to touch anything outside the boat!

One of the very unusual inhabitants of this cave is the Northern blind cave fish. Because the cave is in a state of absolute darkness, these fish (and a few other creatures living here) have adapted to these special surroundings. Our tour was guided by flashlight only, but we were able to see a few of these fish. They were very small (there’s not much to eat in there), just a few inches long and are a threatened species.

While we were deep into the cave, the tour guide turned off the flashlights, so we could experience what it is like to be in total darkness. We could not even see our hands in front of our faces. It was quite eerie. The saddest part of the tour was a little frog who had wondered in and was perched on a rock. The guide said he had been there for a few days and would soon die of starvation. It was all I could do to keep Ben from jumping overboard to save him.

Of course, the darkness of the cave prevented much picture taking. But I did capture one shot on the way out of the cave, once light could stream in, where you can see the beauty of the limestone walls.

Twin Caves Boat Tour at Spring Mill State Park3333 State Road 60 E.
Mitchell, IN 47446
(812) 849-3534Open Daily from Memorial Day Weekend thru mid-August, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Open Weekends from mid-August thru mid-October, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tours run on the half-hour. Only same-day reservations are accepted and they must be made in-person at the Twin Caves shack. Cost is $1/person for ages 3-10 or $3/person for ages 11 and up; no credit cards. Children under age 3 are not allowed on the tour.I’ll be sharing one more post in this series about our visit to Spring Mill. Join me next week as I tell you about Mitchell, IN’s favorite son, astronaut, Gus Grissom. Spring Mill has a beautiful memorial museum dedicated to his work and memory.

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Here are a few resources we are using to learn more about caves, bats, frogs and the geological formations we came into contact with during this field trip. You could easily adapt these for a unit study on caves, whether or not you visited one. But I highly recommend the field trip!

Cavernous Caves

A Fungus Among Us

Everchanging Erosion

Flying Creatures of the Night

Hard As a Rock

Frogs and Toads

Make Your Other Emails Jealous