Hidden beneath a forest of the tallest bushes on Earth lies a twisting community of glittering marble passageways. After a four-year closure, the favored sequence of subterranean chambers laced with crystalline formations discovered beneath Sequoia Nationwide Park is reopening to the general public.
Beginning Might 23, 2025, Crystal Cave, identified for its abundance of milky white stalactites and different shimmering mineralogical options, will welcome guests as soon as once more.
“We’re completely delighted to welcome guests again to Crystal Cave,” mentioned Savannah Boiano, govt director of Sequoia Parks Conservancy, in a information launch. “This hidden underground marvel is one among Sequoia Nationwide Park’s most awe-inspiring treasures, and its reopening offers a unprecedented alternative for guests to expertise its breathtaking magnificence firsthand.”
The cavern was initially closed in 2021 after the KNP Advanced wildfire broken the world. In 2022 and 2023, extreme winter climate degraded the entry highway, protecting it out of motion. Within the years since, the cave and the encircling space have undergone in depth repairs and security upgrades, together with fixing the roadway, eradicating hazardous bushes, and restoring the cave’s solar-powered lighting system.
Situated a couple of 45-minute drive from the park’s principal entrance, close to Big Forest, Crystal Cave was carved into existence over thousands and thousands of years by underground streams eroding the marble. It incorporates a half-mile loop of placing rock formations, together with stalactites, flowstone, and drapery-like curtains of mineral deposits; in prior years, it drew tens of hundreds of holiday makers every season. It’s the second largest of roughly 275 identified caves inside Sequoia and Kings Canyon Nationwide Parks and the fourth-largest collapse California. (The Nationwide Park Service manages greater than 4,700 caves throughout the nation, and there are lots of lesser-known caverns value exploring as effectively.)
Because of the delicate nature of the crystallizations, the cave is simply accessible on a 50-minute guided tour. Led by a Sequoia Parks Conservancy Area Institute naturalist, the guided underground journey delves into the cave’s distinctive ecology, geology, and historical past.
The best way to go to Crystal Cave at Sequoia Nationwide Park
Crystal Cave can solely be visited on a guided tour with the park’s accomplice, the Sequoia Parks Conservancy. In 2025, the location can be open from Might 23 via September 7, with excursions working from 9 a.m. to three p.m. Tickets went on sale March 31, price $21 for adults and $11 for kids below 10 years previous, and are completely obtainable on-line—none can be bought on the cave entrance. These charges are along with the price of entrance passes into Sequoia Nationwide Park (which begins at $20). Tickets can be found on-line till 36 hours forward of scheduled excursions. The park, nevertheless, recommends buying tickets two months prematurely of your go to, and the conservancy warns that they “typically promote out far prematurely, so plan accordingly.”
Whereas the excursions are appropriate for all ages (though child backpack carriers and strollers aren’t permitted), Sequoia Parks Conservancy notes that the path to and from the cave is taken into account strenuous (with stairs equal to these in a 20-story constructing) and never beneficial for these with restricted mobility. Equally, individuals who expertise claustrophobia or coronary heart or respiratory circumstances ought to take into account sitting this go to out. Thankfully, there’s loads extra to see above floor in Sequoia Nationwide Park.
