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Kartchner Caverns State Park

Photo: Mike Lewis / CC BY-SA 4.0

🕳️ Caves

Kartchner Caverns State Park

Benson, AZ · Sonoran Desert

About

Hidden under the Whetstone Mountains until cavers found it in 1974, Kartchner is a living cave where water still drips calcite onto formations that have been growing for 50,000 years. The Throne Room holds Kubla Khan, a 58-foot column that is the tallest in Arizona, alongside one of the world's longest soda-straw stalactites at 21 feet. You walk in through misting airlock doors that keep the air at 99 percent humidity, and cameras stay outside so the rooms of flowstone, draperies, and brushite moonmilk keep forming in the dark.

Highlights

Kubla Khan, the tallest column in Arizona at 58 feetOne of the world's longest soda-straw stalactites (21 feet)A living cave still growing, found in 1974Misting airlock entry keeps it at 99 percent humidityLantern-lit Rotunda and Throne Room tour

Getting there

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Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Kartchner Caverns State Park.

America's Best Caves22 places

America's Best Caves

Step out of the daylight into another world: the longest cave on the planet in Kentucky, a desert chamber big enough to swallow a stadium in New Mexico, an underground waterfall in Tennessee, and a living crystal cavern in Arizona. Some you walk, some you ride a boat through, and one you crawl with a headlamp. America's great caves and caverns, from the national parks to the lantern-lit show caves.