Historic Lantern Tour

Jewel Cave National Monument Tours

The Historic Lantern Tour is an adventurous tour into Jewel Cave. 

Step back into the past on the Historic Lantern Tour where your Park Ranger is dressed in a 1930s-style uniform. This adventure gives you a sense of what it was like to tour the cave in earlier days. Visitors enter and leave the cave through the historic entrance using an unpaved trail. The only light is provided by a lantern most tour participants carry along the route. This tour is considered strenuous and lasts about 1 hour and 45 minutes. 

The tour route is approximately 1/2 mile long through low, narrow passages, and includes roughly 500 steep wooden steps (ladder-like stairs). This tour requires some bending, stooping, and duck walking along an unpaved, rocky trail. There is an age requirement, which is strictly enforced for safety reasons, youth must be 8 years old or older. 

Each Historic Lantern Tour allows for a maximum of 20 participants. This tour is offered from June through Labor Day Monday in September. Participants must be at the Historic Area, which is one mile west of the visitor center, at least 30 minutes before the tour time and prepared for the cave tour.

Select a date to see a list of times

Need to Know

Photo Gallery