Nevada is home to many awesome marble caves, with Lehman Caves being the longest and most well-known cave system. Located in Great Basin National Park, Nevada, Lehman Caves is famous for its spectacular cave formations, including draperies, stalactites, stalagmites, shields, and more. Since 1885, Lehman Caves has been offering tours to explore this stunning natural wonder. In fact, you can ONLY visit Lehman Caves through a ranger-guided tour. It is impossible to visit the caves without a reservation. In this blog, we’ll share everything you need to know about how to visit Lehman Cave in the Great Basin National Park.
Lehman Caves’ main entrance is located in Great Basin National Park, at the visitor center at 5500 NV-488, Baker, NV 89311. You’ll need to check in at the Visitor Center first before starting your tour.
Lehman Caves offer 30-minute, 60-minute, and 90-minute tours that explore different parts of the cave system. Recently, they also offer a lantern-only tour and a wild caving tour. These two tours are only available for the summer. There are four main tours at Lehman Caves.
Depending on the season, Lehman Caves might offer different tours and time slots. The complete schedule or tour details may not be published until 1-3 months before the tour date. Therefore, we recommend checking the park’s website for more up-to-date information.
Lehman Caves is very popular, especially because you cannot enter the cave without a tour ticket. There are two ways to get your ticket:
Tour tickets become available at 10:00 am (ET) / 7:00 am (PST) 30 days in advance. These tours are offered year-round except for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Most of the time, the tours will be open even in bad weather, since it is underground. However, if you’re visiting in bad weather, make sure to check road conditions before coming.
If you’re visiting in the summer, we highly recommend reserving your tickets in advance. Summer is the busy season here, and the tickets sell out very quickly.
At the time of this blog, the 30-minute tour costs $8 (Gothic Palace) and the 60-minute tour costs $12 (Parachute Shield Tour).
If you can’t get your tickets in advance, you might be able to get them in person at the visitor center. Sometimes, there might be cancellations or changes that may allow you to get your tickets.
The park also offers walk-up tours (indicated with an asterisk * on tour schedules), depending on scheduling and staffing levels. These walk-up tours often sell out within the first hour. We recommend getting to the Visitor Center before it opens (8 am Spring and Summer, 9 am in Winter) so you’ll have a better chance of getting your ticket. When we visited for the first time in May, we got there 30 minutes before 8 am, and there was already a line of people waiting. However, we were still able to get our tickets.
By the way, the park is on Pacific Time. This can be tricky because the Great Basin is on the border of Nevada and Utah. So, we kept finding our phone switching to Mountain Time. Make sure to keep an eye on your clock so you don’t be late for your tour.
The park is very strict about what you can and cannot bring into the caves, and for good reasons
Please DO NOT wear anything that has been worn in ANY cave system in the world unless they have been cleaned and decontaminated properly. This includes any article of clothing, shoes, camera straps, hair ties, etc. This is to protect the bats from white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome has claimed the lives of millions of bats across the United States.
You can bring:
You CANNOT bring
The check-in process for Lehman Caves is simple. If you already have your reservation, you can check in at the front desk 15 minutes before your tour time. However, we recommend getting there even earlier, so you can check out the Visitor Center. There is a lot of cool information and things to look at here. Once at the front desk, the park ranger will ask for your name to match up with your reservation. After confirmation, they will give you the actual tour ticket.
When it is close to your tour time, you’ll need to go through the back door of the visitor center and wait in front of the closed cave door. This is where your tour begins.
We did two different tours at Lehman Caves, the Parachute Shield Tour and the Lodge Room Tour. Both times, we met with the ranger at the cave door right outside the Visitor Center, unlike Boyden Caverns, where we had to climb a short distance to the cave entrance. On the map, this door is marked as the entrance. Here, the ranger gave us a quick preview of the cave along with some rules. Then, we were ready for our adventure. On our most recent visit, the park now has a shoe washing station for visitors to clean the bottom of their shoes before entering the cave. For the Lodge Room Tour, we entered through the entrance cave door. However, for the Parachute Shield Tour, we started our tour at the Exit cave door.
For our Parachute Shield Tour, we started at the Lodge Room. The Lodge Room is named for its similarity to a rustic lodge. Don’t forget to look up. There are unique formations that resemble chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. In a way, they also remind us of big pieces of coral or the horns of a stag.
Once leaving the Lodge Room, we crouched through some narrow, low-ceiling passages to make our way to the Inscription Room. Besides the intricate cave formations, this room is also full of history. In the Inscription Room, signatures and dates are etched into the walls and the ceiling by visitors from the early 1900s. The park preserved these as part of the cave’s history. Here, you can also find the Elephant’s foot, a large stalagmite that resembles an elephant’s foot.
After the ranger finished giving us information about the Inscription Room, we continued our way through more narrow passages to get to the Cypress Swamp. Along the way, there is a small viewpoint where we can look into the Lake Room. The Lake Room has a shallow lake. Pass the Lake Room is the Cypress Swamp. The Cypress Swamp is really cool. There are tons of stalactites suspended from the low ceiling, resembling a swamp full of cypress trees, hence the name. The park has installed a new walkway through the Cypress Swamp. This new walkway allows water to flow underneath from rimstone dam to rimstone dam, restoring the hydrologic connection.
The Grand Palace was our next stop after the Cypress Swamp. The walkway down can be a bit steep and slippery, so watch your steps. The Grand Palace is definitely worthy of its name. This room is breathtaking. There is so much to see. One of our favorite are the cave shield formations. These rare formations remind us of a parachute suspended in mid-air. They are known as the Parachute Shield. The Lehman Caves have over 500 cave shields, more than any other caves in the world. Carlsbad Caverns, the giant cave system in New Mexico, only has a handful!
Another cool spot here is the Sunken Garden. Sunken Garden has tons of delicate helictites and flowstones, reminding us of a miniature garden. There is a viewing platform where you can look down at this spectacular marble garden.
The Parachute Shield Tour ends at the Grand Palace Room. Once we were done, we made our way back. If you’re doing other tours, you might come across the Gothic Palace and the Music Room. The Gothic Palace has high ceilings and intricate stalactites, resembling a cathedral. The Music Room is known for its acoustics and spectacular formations that are similar to the pipes of the grand organ.
After your cave adventure, we recommend checking out some of the hikes here at the Great Basin National Park. If you’re looking to acclimate or if Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive is closed, check out Baker Creek Loop. If Wheeler Peak Drive is open, we highly recommend hiking the Bristlecone to Glacier Trail. For a longer hike, you can also add on the Alpine Lakes Loop. If you love exploring wild caves, we love Goshute Cave near Ely.
Happy Adventuring. Don’t forget to check out the related posts below for more inspiration on your upcoming adventures. While at it, follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel! We’ll love you forever!
These are the gear that we personally use and find helpful for this particular adventure. Don’t forget to check out our Recommended Gear section as well.
Our favorite biodegradable, eco-friendly, reef-safe sunscreen!
This is Vy's favorite hiking bag! It has tons of room for snacks and water!
It's always good to bring a GPS tracker with you. We use the Garmin inReach.
This jacket is packable into a super small and light little ball. Perfect for when you just need a little…
This jacket is packable into a super small and light little ball. Perfect for when you just need a little…
Our favorite hiking/travel jacket. It's warm and packable, perfect to bring on a hike or a road trip.
Our favorite hiking/travel jacket. It's warm and packable, perfect to bring on a hike or a road trip.
If you tend to have foot blisters on hikes, get this! We use this all the time.
These hiking poles are sturdy, and great to help keep your balance on short or longer hikes
Compact GoPro pole that extends to 25", perfect to bring on your adventure.
This is our go-to camera for all of our adventures. It comes with us everywhere!
Nice to meet you!
Hi! We are Dustin & Vy, the proud creators of Live That Adventure. We created this website because we wanted to inspire others to live their lives to the fullest. On here, you’ll find everything from hiking, canyoneering, kayaking, and snorkeling to adventure and travel tips, gear reviews, and bucket list items such as bungee jumping or wing walking. We’ll show you the ropes so you can do them too!
Subscribe
Get our best adventure tips, guides and more send to you!
Recent Post
