There are actually two caves to see at Onondaga State Park--Onondaga Cave (the better known) and Cathedral Cave (not so well known). Onondaga is spectacular. The formations and colors will really impress you. Be sure to see the Lily Pad Room, which is toward the end of the tour (and don't let the tour guide try to talk you out of climbing up there). Cathedral is not well-developed in the sense that it does not have electric lighting inside the cave. You have to bring flashlights to see everything. But the rooms are not as high as in Onondaga, so you get very close to the formations and can see them in greater detail. The colors are quite vivid and beautiful. We also saw a grotto salamander in a small stream in Cathedral Cave, which was the best part of our visit to both caves. Entrance fees are charged for both caves; you buy the tickets in the gift shop at the visitors' center. You can pay with cash, VISA, or MasterCard. I think Cathedral cost $10 per adult, and Onondaga $15. Onondaga tours go pretty much on the hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Access is more limited for Cathedral. Tours are given on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are tours at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday and only at 10 on Thursday and Sunday. Call ahead to confirm days, times, and prices. Wear long pants and bring jackets for both caves, as the interior temperature is 57 degrees. We saw both caves and loved them both. The tours give you very different effects, given the different sizes of the rooms and the lighting conditions (electric lights in Onondaga and no lights in Cathedral). Both are excellent and well worth the price of admission.
Beautiful cave...great place to visit on a hot day....our tour guide Sara was very knowledgeable...but the kids and I would've rather had less scientific information and a little faster tour!!!
I really enjoyed this cave. It had a lot of really nice formations. I was not as impressed with my tour guide as I was with the cave itself. She was very nice but she didn't have a ton of useful information to share. There are animal footprints on the banks but they don't know what they are from. For a cave this old, you would think they would have an idea of what is going on in it. There was a light bulb floating in the water (came out of one of their fixtures) and several lights were burnt out along the way. Overall though, this cave was really great, with a lot of great formations to see and the staff, and the guide were nice and friendly. They also care about their bat population, and ask that you not bring or wear anything in (clothes, shoes, purses, etc.) that have been in other caves to avoid spreading white nose syndrome and endangering the health of the bats. I was REALLY happy and impressed with their concern about this, considering many places do not even ask or seem to care. We say several bats in this cave, which was really, really neat.
While we were passing back through Missouri my wife suggested we stop here to see the cave. Even though it set us behind it was well worth it. Be prepared to take tons of pictures and to have shoes that have decent tread on them. Some of the ground is wet and slick but not bad at all. Had a great tour guide that explained all the formations and was very accommodating with the folks who wanted to take extra pictures. Well worth the 15 bucks to see
I had never been to a cave before and used Tripadvisor to decide which ones I should choose. The Onondaga Cave got some really good reviews, and when we went on the tour we saw why. It had a wide range of formations. There are several rooms of formations and at the deepest point of the tour, they turn off all of the lights... Wow.. By the end of the tour, upon returning to the entrance, my daughter and I were a bit winded, but my 10 year old son still had energy to run to the car. A wonderful way to spend the day..
I've been in lots of caves and Onondaga is one of the best around. It's a very "active" cave so you see many different areas that are still growing and changing all the time. This cave offers many unique formations that are really great to see up close and personal. And since it's run by the State of Missouri, it is a very reasonably price outing.
We were visiting friends in St Louis and seeing the local attractions and they suggested these caverns over others in the area, less touristy. These caverns were great. It was a weekday and local schools were back in session so there was one other couple with us. The tour guide was very informative. We saw all sorts of formations and he did a great job explaining how they form. Well worth a trip from St Louis if you have the time.
Onondaga is a beautiful and unspoiled cave. It's a wonderful and informative tour. Don't miss it if you're interested in natural wonders.
I've seen some caves in my travels, however, this one is neater than any other I've seen. It is about an hour and a half tour, recommend a jacket and definitely no flip flops. You have an option of going back after the first part of the tour or going on to the second part, DO NOT GO BACK, the Lily Pad room, in the second part of the tour, is the BEST part of the tour. Really you won't want to miss it. Staff is great, got to see some bats too!
We went to this place because of the reviews. Everything went well until our guide showed up. We originally had one guide but then some young girl comes in the room and rudely dismisses the guide because it's her turn to give he tour. As we go through the tour the girl increasingly gets more and more rude. Be the end of the tour we are skipping things and having to hurry as our guide reminds us every 2 minutes how we are taking too long. I'm not sure if the management is not giving enough time and pressuring this kid to be this aggressive to the customers but everything on this tour was rushed. So much so I watched an elderly woman get so out of breath she could barely talk. My recommendation is don't waste your time with the regular tour. Do the longer photo tours and don't get rushed. Not sure if I'll ever go back. We spent 30+ dollars and barely got any decent pictures.