Penn State student adventurers unfazed by the dark depths of Pennsylvania may find something more welcoming than the caverns’ beauty underground — like relief from the summer heat, said Terri Schleiden, marketing director for Penn’s Cave.
The caves are naturally held at a constant 52 degrees and serve as a refreshing refuge from the heat waves and temperature highs common to State College summers, she said.
Visitors to Penn’s Cave are offered tours of the limestone-covered caverns by motorboat, led past formations enhanced by light effects over the course of an hour.
“It’s an attraction that appeals to people of all ages and backgrounds,” Schleiden said. “We often see three different generations in one family come out to the caves, and hear as many as three different languages being spoken on one boat.”
Trained staffers conduct the tours three to four times a day, livening up the trip by intertwining Native American legends with their accounts of the caves’ history and descriptions of the limestone formations.
While the majority of summer visitors include local families and children attending Penn State-hosted camps, Schleiden said college students venture to Penn’s Cave as well. Because the site is just 20 minutes away from campus, fraternities, sororities and other student organizations often plan group tours at the caves and adjoining wildlife park.
Neil Carney, manager of Indian Caverns in Spruce Creek, Pa., said Penn State’s own Nittany Grotto club members have frequented the caves.
The members of the club, intended for experienced cavers, are trained in climbing and navigation and are equipped with helmets and headlamps. Thus, Carney said, they get the opportunity to explore side passageways of the caverns more or less on their own after the caves’ normal hours of operation.
The side passageways are distinct from the main limestone passageways on which tours are given throughout the day, as they feature tight tunnels and steep pitches lined in clay and mud that only experienced cavers would know how to traverse safely.
Certified cave explorers not affiliated with the Nittany Grotto can similarly trek through the inlets of Indian Caverns by scheduling a visit over the phone or by acquiring written permission, Carney said.
Those unqualified to explore the caves solo are still eligible to tour the largest limestone cavern in Pennsylvania with trained guides knowledgeable in Indian Caverns’ rich geological and Native American histories.
The tours, lasting between 45 minutes and an hour, provide visitors of all ages with a glimpse into the lives of four different Indian tribes who used the caverns to store meat, Carney said. Some caverns are still adorned with etched pictographs depicting the life of a prominent chief, alongside the caves’ natural limestone walls.
“Our guides give interpretive tours, pointing out shapes and patterns in the rock formations as though they were clouds,” Carney said. “They’ve even seen weddings cakes.”