Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — Attraction in Mason

We visited the bat cave over July 4th weekend and had an awesome experience! The gates open at 6 and we stayed about an hour. We were able to see bats returning from a previous flight as well as come out at dusk for their first full flight of the evening. There is no building, no electricity, no plumbing, so plan accordingly. You will need to drive through the James river to get to the parking lot so keep that in mind. This year the river was pretty low and it was easy to drive across in a full size pickup. Once at the parking lot, you will have to “hike” to the viewing site so wear appropriate shoes. I wore flip flops and wish I had worn better shoes although I was still ok. Extremely knowledgeable guide while we viewed the bats....

James river holds a very special place in my heart, I’ve been going out there since I was around 5 years old, my Dad used to bring my sister and I camping, this was long before any of the land was bought up and turned into sport hunting get aways, I remember going to the bat cave long before the local government got ahold of it, we have fished, hunted, fished and hiked all up down the James River, now I take my children out to it, unfortunately I don’t have access to any of the property the way we did when I was a kid, thankfully my Dad knew one of the land owners, it’s a beautiful rugged country, I’ll never get tired of...

We could not get there because you have to ford a river, Oregon Trail style. It is not a low water crossing. You literally have to drive across a river in at least 1 ft of water to get there. It's not suitable for cars, vans, or most SUVs. There's also about 7 miles of rough washboard dirt road to get there. A Facebook fan page mentioned that you could watch the emergence from the road, even if the preserve is closed, but you can't see anything from that side of the river. Photo of the river you have to cross. Arrow is pointing to the tiny little road waaaay on the other side...