onondaga cave

I've been in lots of caves and Onondaga is one of the best around. It's a very "active" cave so you see many different areas that are still growing and changing all the time. This cave offers many unique formations that are really great to see up close and personal. And since it's run by the State of Missouri, it is a very reasonably price outing.

I've seen some caves in my travels, however, this one is neater than any other I've seen. It is about an hour and a half tour, recommend a jacket and definitely no flip flops. You have an option of going back after the first part of the tour or going on to the second part, DO NOT GO BACK, the Lily Pad room, in the second part of the tour, is the BEST part of the tour. Really you won't want to miss it. Staff is great, got to see some bats too!

The cave was beautiful. We went on the last Saturday before the cave closes for the winter. We had a very small group. Our tour guide was great. Make sure you have your walking shoes on and take a jacket.

Prior to this trip, I'd never set foot in a real cave, just little inlets into rock outcroppings. So when I read about the caves here in southern Missouri, I knew we had to take a look. Though I have no basis for comparison, I have to think this is one of the best cave experiences you can find in the midwest. The cave itself is gorgeous, a true wonder of natural (and human) history, with many fascinating formations. Tours led by informative and personable tour guides lead you safely through this marvel, allowing you to just take it all in.We were in Hermann and couldn't find anything to do, so decided to take the hour's drive down here. It was a pleasant drive on rolling two lane highways through some of the Missouri wine country. We arrived shortly before the scheduled tour time to find the park fairly empty (it was a weekday in early May). The tour was $12 per person, so not too bad for a very unique experience. After paying, we waited in the nature center area for our tour time, which arrived without any other customers showing up. That's right, we got to tour the cave with just the two of us and a tour guide! Obviously, this probably isn't the norm, but it made our tour that much cooler, being able to explore one on one with the guide.Our guide was excellent, readily telling us about the natural features, animal inhabitants, and human history of the cave as we walked along. She also was able to articulately answer any questions we had along the way, and even snapped our pictures on request at a few of the more scenic places.Which there were a lot of! This cave is simply stunning to walk through, and to realize that the incredible rock formations are the work of the amazing power of nature. Highlights include the "big room," a chamber at least a football field across, the "twins," two giant stalagmites that have to be 20 feet tall, the unreal-looking flowstone or the lilypad room - the list simply goes on and on. As does the tour, which took about an hour to traverse the main caverns. All that walking, by the way, is done on concrete paths with guardrails, so there are no worries about slipping or falling, as long as you're careful. And of course, no cave would be complete without bats. There are four or five species that inhabit Onondaga cave, and we were able to find examples of most of them, which our guide pointed out for us.I realize that most travelers probably can't get the great one-on-one tour experience that we did on touring Onondaga. But even with a larger group, there's simply so much to see, and it's all so impressive, that I wouldn't hesitate to make this a part of your trip. Depending on the size of your group, $12 per person can add up, but it's worth every penny as you get to venture through a totally unique space that you simply can't find in many locales. It was definitely worth the side trip from Hermann, and even ended up being the highlight of the whole Hermann trip! Just awesome.

We were visiting friends in St Louis and seeing the local attractions and they suggested these caverns over others in the area, less touristy. These caverns were great. It was a weekday and local schools were back in session so there was one other couple with us. The tour guide was very informative. We saw all sorts of formations and he did a great job explaining how they form. Well worth a trip from St Louis if you have the time.

While we were passing back through Missouri my wife suggested we stop here to see the cave. Even though it set us behind it was well worth it. Be prepared to take tons of pictures and to have shoes that have decent tread on them. Some of the ground is wet and slick but not bad at all. Had a great tour guide that explained all the formations and was very accommodating with the folks who wanted to take extra pictures. Well worth the 15 bucks to see

I really enjoyed this cave. It had a lot of really nice formations. I was not as impressed with my tour guide as I was with the cave itself. She was very nice but she didn't have a ton of useful information to share. There are animal footprints on the banks but they don't know what they are from. For a cave this old, you would think they would have an idea of what is going on in it. There was a light bulb floating in the water (came out of one of their fixtures) and several lights were burnt out along the way. Overall though, this cave was really great, with a lot of great formations to see and the staff, and the guide were nice and friendly. They also care about their bat population, and ask that you not bring or wear anything in (clothes, shoes, purses, etc.) that have been in other caves to avoid spreading white nose syndrome and endangering the health of the bats. I was REALLY happy and impressed with their concern about this, considering many places do not even ask or seem to care. We say several bats in this cave, which was really, really neat.

I had never been to a cave before and used Tripadvisor to decide which ones I should choose. The Onondaga Cave got some really good reviews, and when we went on the tour we saw why. It had a wide range of formations. There are several rooms of formations and at the deepest point of the tour, they turn off all of the lights... Wow.. By the end of the tour, upon returning to the entrance, my daughter and I were a bit winded, but my 10 year old son still had energy to run to the car. A wonderful way to spend the day..

We've visited many of the great caves in the US: Wind, Jewel, Carlsbad, Karchner, Mammoth, Oregon. So I was skeptical that this one in a Missouri park would really be worth it. It definitely was! This is a very active cave; lots of water seeping in is actively creating formations. The formations in the Lily Pad room are the most unusual and beautiful we have seen. We only did the main (Onondaga) tour, so I cannot comment on the Cathedral tour.

Went here when staying at Trout Lodge (read that review). This was the highlight of our trip (says a lot about Trout Lodge). The tour was 1.25 hours and cold for the little kids. It was filled with a good mix of awe and info. I would have liked a little more geology/science during the tour and not so much history of tours through the cave... after all, we are there to see a natural wonder, not a road where people walked before.It was like $60 for the 5 of us... seemed about double the price it should be... Is it worth it? Hard to say... I enjoyed it... we probably won't return so as a one-time thing, yes. If we went back every few years - no way.

There are actually two caves to see at Onondaga State Park--Onondaga Cave (the better known) and Cathedral Cave (not so well known). Onondaga is spectacular. The formations and colors will really impress you. Be sure to see the Lily Pad Room, which is toward the end of the tour (and don't let the tour guide try to talk you out of climbing up there). Cathedral is not well-developed in the sense that it does not have electric lighting inside the cave. You have to bring flashlights to see everything. But the rooms are not as high as in Onondaga, so you get very close to the formations and can see them in greater detail. The colors are quite vivid and beautiful. We also saw a grotto salamander in a small stream in Cathedral Cave, which was the best part of our visit to both caves. Entrance fees are charged for both caves; you buy the tickets in the gift shop at the visitors' center. You can pay with cash, VISA, or MasterCard. I think Cathedral cost $10 per adult, and Onondaga $15. Onondaga tours go pretty much on the hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Access is more limited for Cathedral. Tours are given on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are tours at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday and only at 10 on Thursday and Sunday. Call ahead to confirm days, times, and prices. Wear long pants and bring jackets for both caves, as the interior temperature is 57 degrees. We saw both caves and loved them both. The tours give you very different effects, given the different sizes of the rooms and the lighting conditions (electric lights in Onondaga and no lights in Cathedral). Both are excellent and well worth the price of admission.

We went to this place because of the reviews. Everything went well until our guide showed up. We originally had one guide but then some young girl comes in the room and rudely dismisses the guide because it's her turn to give he tour. As we go through the tour the girl increasingly gets more and more rude. Be the end of the tour we are skipping things and having to hurry as our guide reminds us every 2 minutes how we are taking too long. I'm not sure if the management is not giving enough time and pressuring this kid to be this aggressive to the customers but everything on this tour was rushed. So much so I watched an elderly woman get so out of breath she could barely talk. My recommendation is don't waste your time with the regular tour. Do the longer photo tours and don't get rushed. Not sure if I'll ever go back. We spent 30+ dollars and barely got any decent pictures.

Beautiful cave...great place to visit on a hot day....our tour guide Sara was very knowledgeable...but the kids and I would've rather had less scientific information and a little faster tour!!!

Onondaga is a beautiful and unspoiled cave. It's a wonderful and informative tour. Don't miss it if you're interested in natural wonders.

Offers short but very scenic guided tours. We visit mainly caves in the southwest which are often dry with few active areas. This cave has water coming in everywhere and a large number of active formations including straws and some large draperies and flows. It also has a stream and ponds with formations in them. On some days, the park offers tours of an undeveloped cave - call for information. Reservations are useful if you know when you plan to visit.