Digital Alabama (https://digitalalabama.com/article/alabama-caves-and-caverns)
Caves In Alabama Map & Listings by Digital Alabama
Alabama has more than 4,200 caves. Our list and map of caves may help guide you to many Alabama cave locations including the wild caves in north Alabama. Keep in mind that this is not an all inclusive list. We include points of interest, such as caves, when we visit or research.
If you’re looking to cool off from the sweltering summer temperatures or warm up during those cold winter months, the underground wonder maintains a constant 58-62 degree temperature year round as you travel 175 feet beneath the earth. Visit year round to experience the wonder of Rickwood Caverns Cave Tours.
The Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge was once called the Blowing Wind Cave National Wildlife Refuge. In the past, the cave served a variety of uses. Cherokee natives mined the soil to make saltpeter for gunpowder. Saltpeter mining continued on occasion across the War of 1812, and the American Civil War.
Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Alabama National Wildlife Refuges Index Page
Fern Cave NWR was purchased in 1981 to provide protection for the federally endangered gray and Indiana bats. It consists of 199 acres of forested hillside underlain by a massive cave with many stalactite and stalagmite-filled rooms. The cave has five hidden entrances with four occurring on the Refuge. Fern Cave contains the largest wintering colony of gray bats in the United States with over one million bats hibernating there in the winter. Bat experts also think that as many as one million Indiana bats may be using the cave and an expedition into the cave is being planned for the future. Getting There .
Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge has large open fields managed for warm-season native grasses interspersed with small patches of deciduous woodland and the seasonal sinkhole wetland. The refuge is gradually being converted from crops to native warm-season grasslands.
Alabama Caves and Caverns
Alabama State Caverns
Cathedral Caverns State Park
Cathedral Caverns State Park is a publicly owned recreation area and natural history preserve located in Kennamer Cove, approximately 5 miles northeast of Grant and 7 miles southeast of Woodville in Marshall County, Alabama. Rickwood Caverns State Park
Rickwood Caverns State Park is a publicly owned recreation area and natural history preserve located 7 miles north of Warrior, Alabama. Amazing Caves in Alabama
Cathedral Caverns State Park
Neversink Cave Preserve
DeSoto Caverns Family Fun Par
DeSoto Caverns is a series of caves and a tourist attraction located in Childersburg, Talladega County, Alabama. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is touted as “Alabama’s Big Cave”. Rickwood Caverns
Russell Cave National Monument
Manitou Cave
Tumbling Rock Cave
Tumbling Rock Cave is one of Alabama’s finest caves.
Fern Cave
The Kay Hill Deen Fern Cave Preserve, is a privately owned tract adjoining the federally-owned Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge. Fern Cave has five entrances. Four of these are on the Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge (US Department of the Interior), and one (The Fern Sink, or Surprise Pit entrance) is located on property the SCCi owns. One section of the cave is the largest gray bat hibernaculum in the country. As a result, new restrictions are now in place to protect the bat colony from White Nose Syndrome.
Shelta Cave
Shelta Cave is a 2,500 feet (760 m) long underground cave and lake located in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama. It is described as one of the most biodiverse caves within the Appalachian Mountains. The cave is currently owned and managed as a nature preserve by the National Speleological Society. The cave is open to members of the NSS during certain times of the year to minimize the impact on the biota. There are now three sinkhole entrances.
