Laurel Caverns
and owner of Windrush Online Art Gallery
Go where the sun never shines. Explore a subterranean world of darkness, rock, mud, water, and mysterious and beautiful underworldly formations. If you've never been caving don't worry, our little journey starts right here in the comfort of your home. All caves are different and you can select the cave trip that's right for you. From a lighted tour to a wild cave tour you can have it easy or rough. Garrett County has some easily accessible caves that make a great day trip. Although, Deep Creek Lake area and Garrett County have no caves open to the public, nearby Pennsylvania and West Virginia have some good ones.
The closest cave to Deep Creek Lake is Laurel Caverns. Located on west on Route 40 (Historic National Highway) near Uniontown, PA. It's about a 50 minute drive or you can take a National Road Tour for the day starting in the east at Grantsville, MD and ending at the cave on "The Summit". Along the way you can stop at Penn Alps Craft Village, Cassleman Bridge, Addison, PA, Fort Necessity National Park, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and other historic points of interest.
This deep vertical cave offers a lit section which is suitable for just about anyone, and they offer a 3 hour wild caving tour in the unlit and deeper portions of passageway. A minimum of 6 persons is required for the wild cave tour. There are miles of underground passage way carved out over the last 150 million years by the natural forces of water and chemical reactions.
I have taken the wild cave tour with adventure groups we have hosted and I highly recommend it. It's fun, challenging and our guide for both tours was a young vulcanologist named Justin who was excellent in his attention to safety and geology for those interested.
Entrance to the Norman Cale Visitor Center at Laurel
Caverns.
Cavern Entrance sits atop "The Summit"
My most recent trip was with the men from The Morgan MILE, a leadership program from Morgan State University in Baltimore. We pushed the limits and basically covered the entire 3 1/2 miles of cave visiting both the Beach and the lowest point 'The Sump" at the very bottom.
Before you enter you are given a safety briefing and a helmet. Wear boots or good walking shoes or you have to sign a special release saying your footwear was sub-par. Entering the cave you follow the lit portion for a short distance and down a long flight of stairs in one of the larger passageways. Our last main grouping was in the dining room (many cave features have names).
In the Dining Room 'Before'
As soon as you get into the unlit portion of the cave flashlights are turned on and the fun begins. Immediately the passage narrows and you start climbing down and down.
The cave goes about 500' deep into the ground (about as deep as a 45 story building). Much of your time is spent scrambling, scrappling, and climbing over boulders and negotiating passageway. Occasionally you get to a big room. We would group up and rest in the big rooms and one time we turned off our lights for 5 minutes of silent meditation. Sitting in total darkness with just the sound of some water dripping was quite relaxing.
During our tour, our guide Justin let us explore some smaller passageways called 'crawls'. These are tight and confining passages not for the faint hearted. Most of the crawls we tried had little creeks flowing in them so getting wet was necessary as you wiggled and squirmed.
It turned into a 'right of passage' to complete the crawls and everyone got good and dirty (and wet). You can't go caving without getting muddy and wet. You have to dress warm for a fall day, because the temperature is a constant 50-55 degrees. In the summer it can be refreshing, in the winter it can feel warm. You're usually working pretty hard scrambling so you keep pretty comfortable.
Andrew All Earth Eco Tour Guide (notice ghost - actually fog from Andrew's breath at 50 degrees.)
The climb back out was a challenge but very doable for everyone. Climbing up a 40 story building will get the old heart pumping. It was nice to get back to the world of light.
I've never tried the lit portion cave tour, but I here it's a good time and takes about 55 minutes. In the summer, tours leave every hour and reservations are not required. You do need reservations for the caving tour in the unlit portion of cave.
Wild Cave Tour Info:For groups of six or more, a private exploring tour, departing at either 10:00 AM or 2:00 PM on any day Laurel Caverns is open is now available. Confirmed advance arrangements and a $108.00 deposit are required. No one under the age of 12 is admitted and participants under 18 years of age must be accompanied by their parents. Participants must sign a release form.
Each caving participant must bring at least two sources of light, each having the power of two size D batteries or larger. Also, each must wear long pants, a long sleeved shirt, and shoes with good tread and ankle support. Laurel Caverns will supply the hard hats. The cave temperature is 52 degrees.
Our suggestions: The LCD headlamps work great and can be found at Mal-Wart. Eat some food for energy, before, your trip and a water bottle might be a good idea if you tend to get thirsty.
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