Bell Witch Cave — Attraction in Adams

Kind of a long review, but I'm going to include as many helpful tips as I can remember, so bear with me... Visiting the Bell Witch Cave is such a fun experience, especially around Halloween. The price is very reasonable, $23 per adult for a tour of the cabin as well as the cave. The guide for the cabin tour will gather your group on the steps of the cabin & tell you a history of the Bell family & the legend surrounding the witch's curse, then they allow you to explore the cabin rooms on a self guided tour which ends in the small one room museum, which displays news articles, photographs, & artifacts related to the property.

After the cabin tour you follow a trail beside the cabin down to the cave, just a heads up, this area is not wheelchair accessible & you do have to walk down a steep hill, first grass, then gravel, there are a few stairs as well, keep this in mind when planning your visit & I highly recommend wearing appropriate walking shoes or boots, I always wear boots because the cave itself does have water running through it that you WILL have to walk through.

The cave itself is not very large, at least the areas open to the public, it primarily consists of two large chambers & two passage ways, the first passage way is fairly easy to walk through, the second is much more narrow, you will have to duck down at times & you will be walking over water & somewhat slippery stones, there is some climbing involved in the second chamber, but you are given the opportunity to opt out of climbing or opt out of the second chamber entirely. The tour guides explain all of this & give you opportunity to leave before proceeding. If you are comfortable with the narrow pathway & the stream you walk through, I highly recommend visiting both chambers, the cave is absolutely beautiful & well worth the visit.

The tour guides are very well informed on the history of the property as well as the legend of the Bell witch & the Bell family. Our guides this year, Carly & Amelia, were absolutely wonderful. They told us about the history of the cave & the surrounding area, they were able to answer all of the groups questions & they made the tour incredibly fun!

Amelia was the guide for the first chamber & she is very knowledgeable & an excellent story teller, she kept it fun & informative & she also managed to navigate her way over the rocks & through the cave while wearing a beautiful skirt, she never tripped or dropped any of her papers, which I found incredibly impressive.

Carly was the guide for the second chamber & she managed to climb the rocks & tread through the water in a beautiful skirt as well. (They need recognition, it's not easy being graceful in a muddy cave while wearing a long skirt...just saying. Credit where it's due 😁) Also, there are a large number of spiders in the cave (arachnophobes beware), Carly was not only guiding us safely through the second passage, but prevented us from face planting into the spiders as well....much appreciated!

My adult daughter experienced some light headedness in the second chamber of the cave due to a heart condition (we thought the tour wouldn't be too much for her, we were wrong), so we were the last ones out & it took us longer than expected to leave, it was the end of the night, nearing midnight, & both guides were so patient & incredibly friendly, showing nothing but professionalism & concern. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Aside from the tours, there is also a haunted hayride, $20 per adult, & who doesn't love a haunted hayride?! We didn't have time for it this trip, but we've taken it in previous visits & it's just old fashioned Halloween fun. We plan to go back later on this month just for the hayride.

There are concessions offered as well, various different food items, cold beverages, hot chocolate, & coffee. They also have a gift shop you can visit at the end of the tour.

Parking is in a level field, there is no charge for parking. There are porta john restrooms on site. Check the weather before you go, due to the water in the cave, it will flood, causing tours to...

When I was a child I was very in to ghost stories, and I read all about the Bell witch. Now I'm a skeptic, but I'm also a show cave enthusiast, so when I was driving up 24 from Nashville and saw the sign for the Bell cave I decided to stop.

First, the cave tour is a bit on the expensive side, as are the souvenirs. I paid $12 for a package of seven postcards that are all reproductions of old black & white picture postcards. I would really have liked some modern color photographs of the cave or the surrounding area, which is very pretty.

Second, the cave is being maintained as a historic attraction rather than a cave. Most show caves have extensive work done to provide as easy as possible movement through the cave in a very narrow space. There will be a pathway or a stairway, and there will likely be a railing to assist you in climbing or descending. You are then confined to this narrow space. This prevents people from tracking all through the cave and damaging developing stalagmites and other features. This cave has an undeveloped floor, so you are walking primarily on shifting loose rock. Because this is treacherous, at one point the guide actually advises you to put your hand on the rock wall to steady yourself. Cave enthusiasts know that the oils on the human hand form a barrier that prevents water from flowing. Its the evaporation of dripping water and the limestone and mineral deposits left behind that create beautiful cave formations. What the guide suggested could irreparably damage the cave. Fortunately she also said the cave floods regularly, which will, one can hope, help to wash away the damage done by guests.

The cave does not have regularly scheduled tours. Tour are available when there is a sufficiently large group of people present, so if you go alone, you run the risk of waiting quite a while for others to show up to accompany you.

It's quite a hike down to the cave (the owner does warn you about this, but I wanted to warn you before you do the drive), but the cave itself is pretty level. There is a low ceiling in a narrowish tunnel that requires a lot of ducking, and the last part of the cave is done at the top of a rock shelf I was personally unable to climb. However, there are no really difficult transverses, and as long as you aren't claustrophobic the tour won't be a physical challenge.

The cave itself isn't that interesting, with no notable stone features, and if it weren't for the legend of the haunting it wouldn't be much of an attraction. There is a rock-slab-lined Indian grave, but it turns out the grave has been relocated into the cave for some reason. You are warned to beware of the electrical system that power the lights, as apparently the connectors aren't properly insulated. Watch your small children.

The cave regularly floods during storms, so if it's raining, don't bother driving out. Also, the owners' dog often joins the tour, so if you're scared or allergic, you might consider skipping this. Finally, there is no bathroom on the premises, although there is a port-o-potty.

I know this sounds hopelessly negative, but in reality I did enjoy my tour. I just want people to go in eyes wide open. It was interesting, but it's not something I'd feel compelled to return to if I were going to be in the...

Don't let this happen to you. If you are traveling from out of town and can't predict the weather that it won't rain with 100% certainty then do yourself a favor and don't waste your time, gas, and go to the trouble of trying to visit this place. The website mentions at times the cave will close due to rainfall, but it also implies that these are situations where it has rained over several days to flood the cave enough to necessitate its closing. They also mention scrolling a notice on the website when this happens letting people know when the cave will be closed. One would think by now, the management would know when this sort of situation is going to arise and would announce the need to close the cave on their website in advance. On Saturday, July 1, I had checked the website that morning and there wasn't any notice of closure. After driving some distance to get to this place, I pulled onto a gravel road with a gate closing the entrance. There wasn't any sign saying the cave wasn't opened or reason why the gate was closed and locked at that time during normal business hours. Fortunately, I had their number and called to see if I could find out something. A person picked up stating that the cave was closed, that they had been open earlier that day, but it also had rained at some point that same day, so they closed the cave. They asked if I'd be in town the next day and mentioned that the cave, "might" be open. Instead of having a reasonable system in place for operating the tour grounds, it seems they literally make judgement calls based on which way the wind blows, deciding to close on a whim, and not even giving people the courtesy of posting a sign on the gate letting them know what's going on when this happens. If the cave is that unstable with ground water, it should be posted as closed 24 hours in advance if there is any chance of rain. I've been to many caves/caverns and never experienced one ran as unprofessional as this. I had been trying to visit this cave and the cabin for several years on my road trips through Tennessee, but this place doesn't even open until the middle of the week, so one has limited days and opportunities to visit. Not to mention, it's a bit of a hassle even trying to get to and there isn't much else noteworthy to see around this particular attraction to visit as a plan B. You kind of have to base your day focused around visiting this place, which my party and I did. Even if the cave is going to be closed, I don't see why the grounds couldn't be left open to at least let people visit the cabin and gift shop (assuming they have one). I would have at least enjoyed checking out the cabin, would've probably bought a T-shirt, and not felt I had wasted the afternoon trying to get to this place and visit it with my family. If one is interested in visiting caves and/or places associated to urban legends, there are many more options out there to visit with management that knows how to run an operation properly. Especially those that seem motivated to run a business to make money and please their customers/visitors, which clearly seems to not be the case here. Hopefully, this helps someone not make the mistake I did. I only wish I had received the the...