Welcome to Virginia Cave Week
Virginia Cave Week promotes an understanding of Virginia's caves and the surrounding limestone habitats known as karst. Sponsored by the Virginia Cave Board, the week is used to highlight the importance of caves and karst and provide resources and educational opportunities to engage the community in conservation efforts. Educators are encouraged to involve their students using in-class activities and visitation to the state's numerous commercial caves.
This website is a resource for material related to cave and karst education. Check out the different tabs for information and links having to do with caves, karst-related education, classroom activities, virtual caves, and more. Enjoy.
2025 Cave Week events
Keep an eye out on this page for Cave Week Events! They are being planned and as soon as they are known, they will show up here!
(Click on event titles - these are links!)
Luray Caverns will be open and celebrating Virginia Cave Week with a Cave Week brochure that tells all about the geology and importance of caves and karst. Click here to view the brochure.
Sunday June 1 to Saturday June 7: Shenandoah Caverns will be celebrating Virginia Cave Week with various activities, including the opening of the Shenandoah Caverns Peccary Display. Come learn about the extinct peccary Mylohyus fossilis and see the skull of a long-nosed peccary that came to visit the caverns thousands of years ago.
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Sundary, June 1: Dixie Caverns will be open and celebrating Virginia Cave Week with a Cave Week display that includes posters and pamphlets about caves and karst. Also, the Blue Ridge Grotto (BRG) will host a table at Dixie Caverns on Sunday, June 1, from 10 am until 2 pm. Members of BRG will be available to answer questions and talk about caves, caving, karst, and conservation. Brochures and pamphlets will be available. Click here for full view of display. |
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June 3 (Tuesday): Come see Unthanks Cave to celebrate Virginia Cave Week! This is a sport trip into Unthanks Cave, a very large system that is home to many unique organisms. A high level of fitness is necessary to crawl, climb over boulders, and stoop walk. Pre registration is required at laura.young@dcr.virginia.gov to ensure we have enough gear and a safe guide to participant ratio. This event is sponsored by Friends of the Cedars, a volunteer orgnazation committed to supporting DCR efforts to protect and promote teh Lee County Cedars Natural Area Preserve.
June 5th, 8:30 p.m. Celebrate National Cave Week wiith "Night Flight at Grand Caverns". Bat viewing and nighttime nature walk with Bat Conservation & Rescue of Virginia. Location is at Grand Caverns Park and is a free event fo all ages. Meet at the cave entrance parking lot.
Friday, June 6: Come join cavers and speleologists from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Karst Program on a visit to this natural area complete with a short cave tour. Learn about the importance of caves and karst and then actually go INTO a cave! Helmets and headlamps will be provided; wear sturdy shoes/boots with treads, long pants, a light jacket or rugged shirt with long sleeves—cave temp will be about 54 degrees—and gloves (garden gloves are fine). The cave tour will last up to 1 hour.
This is a “rain or shine” event, so dress accordingly. There is a limit of 75 people for the tours throughout the event, so sign up early!
Hours for the tours are from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Ogdens Cave Natural Area Preserve is in Middletown, Virginia, in Frederick County. Special permission from the Virginia Natural Heritage Program has been given for this Virginia Cave Week event. To register, email Meredith Weberg at merecaver@yahoo.com no later than June 1, 2025.
June 7th, 12:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. We will be hosting our third annual Cave & Karst Expo at Grand Caverns on June 7, 2025, from 12:00pm – 4:00pm to celebrate National Cave Week! Our goal is to continue to educate members of the community about caves, karst, and conservation through this free public event with educational resources and fun activities for all ages, while also highlighting related services offered by local partners.
More information on caving and karst related partners along with a flyer on the event will be coming soon.
