Explore New York State Caverns

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“Watch out for your head,” Jim warns us, just in time to avoid colliding with a ledge in the rock. With the ease of a Venetian gondolier, our guide pushes the boat with a long pole while our group is absorbed by the spooky contours of this lake, located 45 meters below New York State. !

Of the 17,000 caves in the United States, only about 100 are open to the general public. Two of them are located here in the small town of Cobleskill, an hour’s drive from Albany. For 6 million years, water has carved the thick layer of limestone beneath its green hills, creating the largest underground in the northeast of the country: the Howe Caverns.

Once they arrive at the reception pavilion, clearly visible from the highway, curious people of all ages crowd into the elevator that will take them underground. In addition to the excitement of making this unusual descent, there is the interest of visiting an attraction whose opening dates back to the beginnings of the tourist industry.

The Howe Caverns received their first visitors in 1843, at a time when the public was fond of these kinds of natural wonders. A few years earlier, the opening of the Mammoth Caverns in Kentucky – the largest underground network in the world – had marked the spirits. Oil lamp in hand, owner Lester Howe himself guided expeditions that could last eight hours! In the evening, one of his daughters played the piano in the lounge of the newly built hotel to accommodate the ever-increasing number of tourists since the opening of a nearby train station.

The popularity of the Howe Caverns is so great that they quickly became the most visited attraction in New York State after Niagara Falls. A position they still hold, says their promotional brochure.

Beauty and mystery

The elevator doors open before us, revealing a universe imbued with beauty and mystery. Our route on foot, then by gondola, takes us through a succession of narrow passages, domes of monumental dimensions and rooms decorated with sculptures shaped by erosion. According to his fancy, the water has sculpted shapes sometimes evoking the organ of a church, sometimes the threatening head of a dinosaur.

Some aspects of the tour raise eyebrows: the entrance fee – US $ 25 for an adult – is a bit high, groups are large, and our guide invites us twice rather than once to stop by the souvenir shop. Despite these few caveats, it would be useless to sulk his pleasure. This long tunnel dug in the limestone still arouses the fascination of visitors, 175 years after its discovery.

Five minutes from there, another “museum cave” allows you to descend into the depths of New York. Discovered at the end of the 1920s, the Secret Caverns are accessible by a long stone staircase. They are narrower than their neighbors, but their exploration is nonetheless thrilling. At the bottom of the underground is a waterfall of about thirty meters whose roar is similar to that of thunder! To have.