hide
Refer Friends. Get $10*

Nashville

Search U.S. by State:

  • A
  • C
  • D
  • F
  • G
  • H
  • I
  • K
  • L
  • M
  • N
  • O
  • P
  • R
  • S
  • T
  • U
  • V
  • W
  • Canada
  • Other Countries
x hide

Oh no... You're too late for this Groupon!

Sign up for our daily email so you never miss another Groupon!

Cumberland Caverns – McMinnville

Scenic Caverns Walking Tour or Spelunking Tour (Up to 52% Off)

from$9
Buy
Sold Out
Sat Nov 24 05:59:59 UTC 2012
Value
$18
Discount
50%
You Save
$9
T460x279
  • Great Outdoors
  • Once in a Lifetime

In a Nutshell

Guides lead guests on a 1.5-mile walking tour with a light-and-sound show, or on a 3-hour spelunking trip through lesser-seen muddy tunnels

The Fine Print

  • Expires Jul 3, 2013
  • Limit 1 per person, may buy 7 additional as gifts. Limit 1 per visit. Valid only for option purchased. Not valid with other offers.
  • See the rules that apply to all deals.

Some people are born to run; some are born to scramble up and down walls and ceilings like a tokay gecko. Unleash your inner lizard with this Groupon.

Choose Between Two Options

On the daily scenic walking tour, guides lead a 1.5-mile trek past distinct rock formations and a large underground waterfall. They usher visitors to the remains of an 1812 saltpeter mine and into the Volcano Room, where a three-quarter-ton hand-cut crystal chandelier hangs from the domed ceiling. At the end of the tour, visitors witness an underground light-and-sound show that brings to life the Bible's depiction of the creation of the earth.

Explorers of all levels traverse the rock breakdown that fills Devil's Quarry at the start of the Rocky Topper spelunking tour. During the three-hour trip, guides help guests crawl through tight spaces and up cavern ladders, traverse three muddy passageways, and navigate a tight passageway.

Cumberland Caverns

When surveyor Aaron Higgenbotham discovered Cumberland Caverns in 1810, he couldn't see its majestic pillars of dripping rock, its flowstone curtains, or its subterranean waterfalls. Stuck on a small ledge in the dark, Higgenbotham was as blind to the cave system's features—one of them a 2,000-foot-long cavern hall—as the eyeless crayfish that live there. His initial discovery nevertheless paved the way for nearly 200 years of speleological findings. Today, guides preserve this 32-mile National Landmark cavern by leading daily tours through its passages.

During tours, guides point out artifacts left by pre Civil War–era saltpeter mines, tunnels filled with rare gypsum deposits, and mysterious inscriptions reading "Shelah Waters - 1869" and "Millard Fillmore + Stacy." They lead guests among stalagmites and stalactites to a sound-and-light show that dramatically retells Bible stories, or into a domed hall that houses a hand-cut crystal chandelier rescued from a historic Brooklyn theater. It's in this last space that staffers organize banquets, weddings, and monthly live bluegrass concerts, or hold burial services for broken fax machines. They also lead visitors through the tight passageways of lesser-seen cavern segments during daytime or overnight spelunking trips.

Ask a Question

Groupon Says

Dem_teaser_cat

The Groupon Guide to: Diary Greetings

Fewer and fewer people are keeping diaries now that it's possible to quickly broadcast your feelings on social-media sites such as Facebook, TalkHole, and Spewr. If you're holding on to the past, at least keep your diary entries fresh by starting them with one of these "Dear Diary" substitutes:

  • Hello, book
  • Good to see you, paper thing
  • Diary, you're the only one that listens to me. Here I go!
  • Hey journal, you ready for some illegible scribbles?
  • Good morning, and thank you for letting me do this to you again.
  • OK, time to cover your body in my feelings.
  • Greetings, may our time together be fruitful (kiss the diary).
  • Vrrrrooom! Here comes the choo-choo pen down the diary tracks!
  • I've done terrible things and these are a few.

Spewr lets you share your feelings with friends—on the Internet!

Cumberland Caverns

4.0 out of 5
TripAdvisor (53 Reviews)
Staticmap?size=186x186&sensor=false&channel=www
  • A

    McMinnville

    1437 Cumberland Caverns Rd.
    McMinnville, Tennessee 37110
    Get Directions

Reviews