Visiting Caves at Craters Of The Moon In Idaho

Look on their website to see if the caves are accessible when you plan to go visit. You can check here at this website for updates what is open.

Caves Information

🚨Before you are able to go explore the caves you must first stop by the Visitor Center and answer a few questions to obtain a permit (they are free). They want to ensure that the clothes and shoes you are wearing have not been worn in other caves or caverns to help protect the bats from catching diseases that might have been transferred.

The National Park Rangers will hand you a stamped booklet with your cave permit inside of it. Be sure to have this on your person when entering the cave if someone does come by and ask you for it.

Don’t forget to grab your Junior Ranger booklet – our kids love to get these when visiting any of the National Park Services locations. It is a wonderful tool to help engage the kids into exploring and learning more about where they are at. Plus once you return your booklet to the Visitor Center and complete the Junior Ranger pledge with the National Park Ranger you will receive a lunar junior badge. This badge is the only one that is silver and it has an astronaut on it… it’s so cute!

Here are the locations that give out Junior Ranger booklets and badges

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3 Caves & 1 Tunnel to Explore

These caves are available to explore Spring, Summer and Fall seasons. Even in the heat of the summer the caves will be significantly lower in temperature than the surface. We explored the caves in the summer and there was ice in the caves and we could see our breath below. A light jacket out be a great option before entering to explore.

The areas to go down into the caves are not paved and you have to climb up and over rocks since they are wild caves. The summers can bring extreme heat that radiates off of the volcanic ground and strong winds are common all year round.

Beauty Cave

When walking down into the beauty caves you will be walking over boulders and then when you get down to the ground it is a bit slippery from the colder temperatures. There is enough light at the front entrance into the cave. As you walk further back into the cave you will need a light because it is pure darkness. This cave is very large in height but shorter in distance. There is a barricade at the end of the tunnel to let you know that is the end.

Beauty Cave is exactly what it’s name says it is. The walls are covered in a shimmery silver which is so beautiful. It is actually a silver-colored microorganism. In our video below you can see the silver microorganism on the walls that shine like pure silver.

Boy Scout Cave

This cave was our absolute favorite one we explored here. To enter this cave you have to walk down a steep slope to the opening. Once your make your way down to the entrance the temperatures greatly change. There will be 2 options to enter the cave the one to the right opens up at the end and the one to the left is more open but you will have to return out the same way you entered. We explored the larger part of the Boy Scout Cave; To enter you must crawl over large rocky boulders for about 5 feet to the larger opening in the cave. This is a wild cave so you will feel like a true explorer. Watch your head because the entrance is tight and you will not want to scrape your head on the volcanic rock above.

This cave is more difficult to get into and walk around in. The ground and rocks can become slippery from the water and ice forming below. Once you enter this cave there is zero light. Flashlights in the caves are a must – they are extremely dark!

Fun Cave Fact

A fun way for you to remember the difference between Stalactites and Stalagmites when entering caves is… Stalactites are holding ”tite” tight to the ceiling and Stalagmites ”mite” might make it to the ceiling one day.

Dewdrop Cave

This cave is right before you walk to the Indian Tunnel. We did not explore this cave but the people on the trail said it had a rocky bouldered entrance and was more open like the Beauty cave.

Indian Tunnel

The Indian Tunnel use to be a lava tube and it opened up and has great areas of light shining through now. At the entrance there is a stairway that has railing on both side to help you down in the tunnel. This is an easy tunnel to explore and it is 800ft total. Most of path is flat until you get to the end where you have to climb on a boulder through a hole in the rock to get out.

I would also bring a small first aid kit incase someone slips on any of the rocks. The volcanic rocks are very sharp and will cut you. Our son slipped on one with his foot and caught himself with his arm- we applied water to wash it off and then a bit of Doterra natural ointment to it.

When you exit the Indian Tunnel through the hole Jaren is standing in. You will then climb out over the rocks and follow the poles back to the walkway entrance.

What you will need for the caves

• Flash Light
• Head Lamps
• Closed Toed Shoes
• Light Jacket (If you plan to stay down in the caves awhile)
• Water
• Hair ties (for long hair because of the wind)

Things to know before you go

Parking is easy for each location to pull off and explore.

The paths are ADA accessible (100% paved)- but the caves and tunnels are not

The trails are short and the caves and tunnels do not take very long to walk through.

Enjoy exploring the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve Idaho.

We also went to check out the local restaurants and found the Pickle’s Place. So we had to order the fried pickles and we had never had fried speared pickles and the were very yummy.

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Have you checked out our blog post on Dinosaur National Monument – totally a neat place to go visit on the Utah/Colorado border.