Hellertown, Pennsylvania
July 2021
My family and I recently visited Lost River Caverns for the first time. During our guided walking tour we learned that in the late nineteenth century the now parking lot was a then active limestone quarry. The entrance to the cavern was first opened to the surface in 1883 by the quarry workers. The first systematic exploration of the caverns was in 1886 with the expedition being sponsored by Lehigh University. In the years following the cavern discovery, local residents used the space as a ballroom, college fraternity initiation ceremonies, and secret storage during the prohibition era. In 1929, the cavern was purchased with the intention of creating a commercial show cave. In 1930, the cavern was opened to the public, after some safety upgrades that included handrails, lighting, and walkways. Between 1949 and 2009, there was one large well decorated room that was dedicated as a chapel. Over the years, Crystal Chapel has had over 100 wedding ceremonies. Geologists have declared that the caverns began forming within the last 250,000 years. The way that this has happened is by rain water seeping down through cracks and crevices in the rock and that slowly has dissolved the limestone to form the unique chambers and passages.
Our tour was very educational and it lasted about 40 minutes. The tour followed about 1,200 feet of well lighted paved walkways. The tour did have several of ramps and eight steps, going in both directions. I would not say that this tour was handicap accessible, due to not wanting to disrupt the nature of the cavern. The cavern is a consistent 52 degrees (we wore light jackets with shorts and we were fine) and the walkways are often wet (we wore sneakers). The cost of the tour is $14.50 per adult ages 13 and up and $9.50 per child ages 3 to 12.
We arrived early to our reserved tour time (we booked online, HIGHLY recommend booking in advanced because the tours do fill up) so we took a hike on their nature trail. The nature trail is a scenic 1,800 foot trail on wooded land. The trail forms a bisected loop that can be rugged and steep. The trail takes about 15 minutes, give or take a few, to complete. A unique feature of the trail are the twelve stations with questions about terrain features and the cave. On this wooded trail, endemic plants and animal species can be seen. We saw a chipmunk on our hike! The nature trail does not cost anything.
Since we still had more time before our tour, we checked out The Gilman Museum. The Museum is a collection that has been created over the years and passed down through three generations. The collection includes antiquities, curiosities, gem stones, paleoanthropological items, rare fossils, unique minerals, and weapons that date back to the seventeenth century. We also visited the Gift Shop that had crystals, gems, jewelry, minerals, stones, and unique souvenirs. We really enjoyed looking around at everything! Both the gift shop and the museum were the types of places that you could explore all day simply because there was an overwhelming amount of stuff.
Finally, it came time for our tour which my family and I greatly enjoyed. While this is the smallest cavern I have visited, it was still wonderful! After the tour, we went back to the gift shop and my sister and I each bought a bag of sand filled with gems to use at The Gem Mill and I bought a bag of geodes that I broke (on purpose) at home. My sister and I went out to the Gem Mill together and filled our pans with our sand bags, we then put the pans into the water operated sluice. We had a lot of fun discovering our gems by using the functional reconstruction of a nineteenth century mining operation. It completed the day in the best way possible!
Overall, we had a fun time visiting the Lost River Caverns. Within a few hours, we were able to accomplish everything that we wanted to do from hiking the nature trail to participating on the tour to panning for gemstones at the mill. I would definitely recommend coming to see the Lost River Caverns for a fantastic day filled with lots of hidden surprises. I think that Lost River Caverns is very affordable and there were also restrooms located inside of the museum. I would recommend getting a bite to eat before you come to the cavern though as there is no food onsite, besides some candy sold in the giftshop. Come and see for yourself of the story of why the River is Lost.
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