Climbing3 sectors- Duration
- 6 days
- Kids
- Kid+
- Cost
- $
- Permit
- Not needed
- Crowd
- Busy
Climbing in the Red River Gorge
United States
Steep, pocketed sandstone overhangs and thousands of sport routes in the forests of eastern Kentucky.
Kentucky·United States

Photo: James St. John · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Mammoth Cave's limestone passages run for over 680 km, far longer than any other known cave, and new sections are still being mapped. The national park offers everything from the historic tour past 1800s saltpetre works to the Wild Cave Tour, six hours of crawling and squeezing off the tourist trails.
In season: Year-round · Peak: Year-round
Ranger-led tours only, from easy walks through huge passages to tight belly crawls on the wild tours. The cave stays around 12 degrees all year.
The route walked since the 1800s, saltpetre works and all
Four miles through the deep passages
Six hours crawling in the longest cave system on earth
Book tours on the park's reservation site, especially in summer. Take the Historic Tour first, then the Grand Avenue tour, and join the Wild Cave Tour if you are fit and happy in tight spaces.
CavingUnited States
The longest and deepest lava tube on earth, running for 65 km under the forests of the Big Island.
Caving3 systemsUnited States
Deep free-fall pits where Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia meet, the heartland of American vertical caving.
CavingFrance
The Vercors shaft that was the first cave taken past −1,000 m — a committing vertical descent.
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