CRYSTAL ONYX Cave consists of three distinct parts. We offer two one hour tours, one does the upper Lake and Cake Trails, and the other starts at the Lower Entrance and includes all of the lower level features.  

For the upper tour you start at the cave entrance and descend 35 steps to the first landing.  The Lake Trail goes to the left, and is the easiest trail, with only 17 steps.  You go past the Great Pumpkin, across Crystal Lake on the Lake bridge, to the large room where Crystal Falls is located.  Then you go past two large flowstone formations, to the Mystery Spot.  You will see a medium sized dome in the “Oh Wow” room and learn about other mysteries: The rock that didn’t fall, the “half mile” crawl, the bunny and the giant ice cream cone. See cave popcorn here and plenty of fossils.

To the right at the First Landing is the anastomosis tunnel which comes out at the stairs down to the Great Room.  Heading straight will lead you along the Cake Trail past the Enchanted Forest with columns, cave drapery and much more.  Then you go up to the Moon Room, and learn about Moon Milk. Steps lead down to the Imagination Room where you can find the giant T-rex, Bullwinkle, and Squidwerd.  A dramatic set of 14 stairs leads up to the Cake room.  There you can see the Wedding Cake, 50 year old stalactites and stalagmites, rimstone dams, and the Great Wall.  Finally have a seat on the benches to have your ultraviolet and “dark” experiences.  The cave continues on but there are no formations because it is under the sandstone cap. The Primitive Trail is available here which leads under the benches area.

The second tour takes you to the bottom levels of the cave.  It starts at the lower entrance located in another sink hole.  You follow a tunnel that winds through tight formations for about 150 feet before emerging into the Great Room. Here you can look up 75′ into awe inspiring domes and also the upper entrance sink hole where the cave was discovered.

40 stairs down lead you past the potato patch or giant cave popcorn where you can see the translucent crystals.  Then to a mystery tunnel, and finally to the base of Goliath.  Here are more striking tall domes, and Goliath, a cave drapery/stalactite 45 feet tall that is always dripping.  This is the spot that Shelly Wolf was trapped in for over 8 hours in 2001.  She and two others were exploring for more cave.  You can read about it on the “Trapped” page.

In the Great Room there is a rock strewn area that offers the mystery of secrets below.  We know this because when you toss 5 gallons of water at the spot, it gurgles and sloshes as the water goes down into an unexplored area.

Also in the Great Room is the entry to the Alien Room. The alien is a large stalagmite, it doesn’t have a visible stalactite above it, making it an alien. Then a flight of grand steps lead you to the spectacular Wedding chapel or Palace Room as it was called at one time.  It is the largest room in the cave, and the most recently excavated by water. When Scott got the cave in 2010 there was an asphalt parking lot above this room and it was dormant.  Scott replaced asphalt with gravel, ground water has started flowing and the formations have started growing again.  There is an area where weddings were performed by a previous cave owner. The room is decorated with beautiful ceiling formations, cave bacon, and the T-Rex that is our banner logo.  We will even give you a short light show and the “dark experience.”

This tour then leads up the Great Room stairs to a tunnel carved out of rock in a shallow flow area.  It joins the Cake Trail at the anastomosis tunnel junction.