What to Know About Wild Caving and Where to Try It

In the absolute darkness 333 feet beneath Tennessee’s Cardwell Mountain, I am belly-crawling through a passage barely wider than my shoulders, headlamp cutting through blackness so complete it seems alive. The limestone presses against my back as I squeeze along a passage, following the faint glow of my guide’s light into the untouched wilderness of Cumberland Caverns.

I’m told there’s a ridge somewhere ahead in the dark. Beyond that ridge lies a drop into the unknown. I inch forward on my stomach, the cool rock against my chest, trusting my guide’s voice echoing off unseen walls. This is the moment that defines the adventure: surrendering to the earth’s hidden architecture while every instinct screams to retreat to the safety of sunlight.

This isn’t a tourist cave tour with handrails and electric lighting. We’re in the midst of wild caving, where the underground world reveals its raw, primal state.

Cumberland Caverns, stretching more than 27 miles through Tennessee limestone, offers some of the most accessible wild caving adventures in the U.S. Recognized as a National Natural Landmark in 1973, it’s the longest show cave in the state and among the longest in the nation. Venture beyond the walking tours, and you’ll discover what cavers call “the living dark” through adventure tours that involve “handlines, high twisting climbs, and the highest ladder in Cumberland Caverns,” according to their website.

Adventure tours require crawling, climbing, and squeezing through muddy, dark portions where it’s crucial to have hands free of cameras or phones. It’s the antithesis of Instagram tourism. The pursuit demands presence, courage, and respect for spaces that have remained unchanged for millennia.

This kind of primal, underground adventure is drawing more travelers every year. While show caves attract more than 70 million visitors annually worldwide, more and more travelers are pushing past the paved walkways and illuminated paths. Adventure outfitters have recently made wild caving more accessible through guided tours and proper safety protocols, but the growing allure is also philosophical. In an era when every corner of the earth seems documented and geotagged, many caves remain unknown. They’re one of the last places where you can be among the first humans to see something in the light of a headlamp—places where exploration isn’t a metaphor but a physical reality.

“You’re going to get beat up, you’re going to get hurt, you’re going to come out with some bruises, but you’ll also have had a deeply transformative experience,” says Charles Sutherland, an adjunct professor at Tennessee Tech University who has guided wild-caving expeditions for years, including in Cumberland Caverns. He says the cave is, at its most basic, a metaphor for everything that’s scary.

“It’s under the earth, and that’s where death is, from a prehistoric perspective,” he says. “Then you have darkness, which tends to also be associated with death and the unknown.”

But confronting these primal fears heightens the experience. After hours underground in sensory deprivation, empowered by pushing your limits, cavers emerge to find “colors are more intense, experiences more intense and vivid, everything is better,” Sutherland says. “There is this notion of rebirth. You’ve been born again in the womb of the earth.”

The growing appeal of wild caving reflects travelers’ hunger for authentic experiences. “Caving represents really the last attainable frontier of exploration for people like me,” says Sutherland.

He believes many are drawn to caves because of humanity’s fundamental curiosity, the same drive that led prehistoric people to explore caves barefoot 6,000 years ago. “There are things that we find in caves, like ancient bones and fossilized footprints, that are deeply fascinating,” he remarks.

Caving—which is the more extreme cousin to spelunking—is physically and mentally challenging but also adrenaline fueled and just plain fun, too. Down in Tennessee’s limestone corridors, crawling through passages that rarely feel human touch, I’m exploring whole worlds that exist beneath our feet, and each cave I’ve been in changes me in ways I’m still discovering. I touch the earth’s ancient bones and feel my own insignificance transform into wonder.

For those ready to answer the call of the living dark, the underground world waits, patient, mysterious, and transformative as ever.

How to start wild caving safely

Wild caving requires proper preparation and guidance. Sutherland recommends starting with established tour caves that offer wild experiences. After becoming more comfortable, intermediates often connect with local caving clubs through the National Speleological Society for deeper exploration.

Safety equipment is nonnegotiable. All cavers should have a helmet, three light sources, backup batteries, knee and elbow pads, gloves, and sturdy boots. The phrase cotton kills applies underground, just as it does in hiking: Wool or synthetic materials are essential for warmth when wet.

However, mental preparation is equally important, says Erin Bartlett, education coordinator at Horne Lake Caves on Vancouver Island.

“Caving is 70 percent mental,” she says. “I’ve seen some absolutely amazing cavers freak themselves out on things that weren’t scary at all, just because they overthought it too much up in their head. The key is building experience gradually and being honest about comfort levels with your team.”

The three fundamental safety rules for wild caving are as follows: 1) Establish a callout person who knows your location and expected return time; 2) maintain a group of at least three people (so one can provide first aid while another seeks help, if needed); and 3) carry multiple independent light sources per person.

Where to go wild caving

• Cumberland Caverns, Tennessee: Offers 12 tour options from easy walks to extreme adventures. The wild tours include technical climbing and the cave’s highest ladder system.
• Horne Lake Caves, Vancouver Island: Features multicave experiences with underground waterfall climbing and Canada’s only cave slide during five-hour extreme tours. The caves showcase glowing calcite formations and ancient fossils within a protected provincial park.
• Jewel Cave, South Dakota: America’s third-longest cave system offers wild tours requiring participants to scramble over breakdown (pieces of collapsed cave wall), chimney or squeeze up and down between walls, use rope assists on vertical climbs, and belly-crawl through tight passages during three- to four-hour journeys.
• Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky: Mammoth Cave National Park offers an Intro to Caving tour focusing on safe caving techniques through challenging, hard-to-reach areas. All equipment and outerwear are provided, but visitors must be at least 10 years of age to participate.
• Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize: Here, underground rivers flow past 1,400-year-old Maya artifacts, requiring specially licensed guides to navigate this archaeological wonder where, according to the website, “almost all known caves functioned as Maya ceremonial caves.”
• Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, Oregon: Embark on an authentic wild-caving experience at Oregon Caves, delving into untouched depths with experienced guides. Over three hours, small groups navigate a challenging underground world, scrambling over boulders, belly-crawling through narrow passages, and squeezing through tight spaces to discover hidden marble wonders.
• Cueva de los Tayos, Ecuador: Deep in the Amazon rainforest near Macas, this mystical cave requires a 74-meter rappel descent and offers three-day expeditions that combine wild caving with Indigenous Shuar culture. Adventurers camp inside the cave’s galleries, explore underground waterfalls, and participate in traditional ceremonies. The journey includes river navigation to reach the remote Kuankus community, making this one of the world’s most immersive caving experiences.