Dunbar Cave State Park — Attraction in Clarksville

I want to love this park, I do. But it suffers from the State of Tn's lack of interest in maintaining it's parks and infrastructure compared to some city parks. Pro's: Its beautiful. The landscape before you hit the trails is very pretty and at one time was maintained. It has a large lake in the front. It has a large cave in the back with two stories out front allowing for two different trail exits. The actual trails in the back, at one, time were damn fine walking trails with lots of acreage.

Cons: The trails are not maintained at all. Trees are fell everywhere. If one falls on a walking trail it may be months before anyone gets back there to cut it. Trails have no gravel and are all dirt. Trails are currently in flux. New trails have been plowed next to old trails I can only assume for maintenance. The new trails are all mud and dirt. Sink holes everywhere. There was one in front of the port a potie's which just got filled. Another is near the lower lake.. just been sitting there for months inviting some child to fall into it. The lake stinks, smells and looks terrible.. and makes you not want to come back to this place. Goose crap is everywhere on the bridge everyday. Mud is all in the two story cave entrance.

Basically, this could be a nice park, but the State of TN, could care less about any of it's parks, least of all this one.

Save yourself time and disappointment.. go to a city park some...

I rate this 5 stars with some caveats:

If you hate learning history you won't enjoy the cave tour. The tour is basically all about the history of the cave and while there are some cave formations they aren't the main focus

Do not bring little kids on this tour they won't understand the history nor appreciate the cave

If you have trouble walking this is not the cave tour for you. This cave does not have concrete walking paths like other popular caves so you are walking on slick uneven rocks the whole time.

I HIGHLY recommend checking out a more well preserved cave like Cumberland Caverns before this one. This cave was heavily damaged before the state took control and it's a perfect example of why caves have the rules they have. One of my favorite parts of the tour was when they took you to the most damaged room on the tour first and then went to the best preserved room in the cave right after. It's a stark difference and shows just how damaging humans can be to caves and why it's important to protect them.

Yes you can see the Native American pictographs and yes they are pretty cool. If you have poor low light vision though they may be hard to see so keep that in mind

Overall I recommend this tour, it's very different from other cave tours and gives you a good perspective on why preserving caves is...

Truly amazing and really somwhat inspiring. Here atDunbar cave and Montgomery County Tennessee a very deep Native American history somewhat of a window into life of Ancient ancestors of ours Was discovered on walls within the cave system and through carrying out digs within the soft cave sediment. Also this extremely large cave system gave somewhat of a window looking into the lifestyle of these ancient people. These peoples having no source of light outside firedid not venture far in. Some cave art along with very decorated members of their Indian tribes were found and studied. These discoveries and more made on the park property and surrounding area gave archeologist much insight into ancient politics, culture, and much more. I highly recommend Dunbar cave state park above and below ground as being worth going to it is awesome for all ages in your family . Even if you have no desire to learn into Native Americans old ways The cave itself is extremely extremely large, very old and absolutely magnificently beautiful. With some of the tallest stalagmites and longest stalactites in state. I'm thinking I could go on and on. But hows about I'll stop here and you go visit the state park soak up the beauty and the...