Natural Bridge Caverns is opening their latest tour: Hidden Wonders, a multi-million dollar experience that has been in progress since 2017. The tour will open on May 12, 2023.
Natural Bridge Caverns is already Texas’s largest most visited commercial cave, and the new tour features state-of-the-art lighting, a sound and light show, and expansion into never-before-toured areas of the property’s Hidden Cavern. The Hidden Cavern is a second cavern at Natural Bridge Caverns and part of the same geologic system.
“In developing this area of the cavern system, we have both pursued and established best case practices for working in this delicate environment. Our goal is to give visitors a stunning view of the cavern like never before, without impacting its beauty,” said Brad Wuest, president of Natural Bridge Caverns. “Developing this tour has been challenging due to many things – including the depth of the new public tour area. This expansion required the construction of a 710-foot exit tunnel – double the length of anything done before – and to do so with minimal impact on the cavern. We used best in class techniques and developed new ones to make it work. We took the time to do it right. The result speaks for itself.”
The cavern will feature fully-programmable lighting as well as a 1100-foot-long expansion of the public passageways beginning with a stainless-steel bridge across the cavern’s deepest point. The new tour will bring guests through an area that was only previously accessible by cavers. This addition will showcase an underground canyon, more formations, and a large 5700-square-foot dome chamber called the Ballroom which serves as an event space. A new viewing area overlooking a massive passage called the Box Canyon is now a natural theater for a unique sound and light show finale.
Exiting the Hidden Wonders tour will also be its own experience, as guests will ride from underground to the surface on the 700-foot-long Belt Assisted Transport (BAT) through the newly constructed exit tunnel. According to the Natural Bridge Caverns, the Bat is the world’s first conveyor system ride out of a cavern.
“We plan to showcase the science behind the beauty of this once hidden cavern on our tour,” Wuest added. “With Hidden Wonders’ many enhancements we have an opportunity to both educate and entertain.”
For more information on the Hidden Wonders Tour and future expansion efforts planned at Natural Bridge Caverns, visit NaturalBridgeCaverns.com.
Photo credit: Natural Bridge Caverns
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