Seneca Caverns — Attraction in Thompson Township

I visited Seneca caverns with my 11 year old granddaughter. I have been to Ohio caverns and olentangy in Ohio as well as forbidden cavern in Tennessee and inner space in Texas and Mammoth cave and all the surrounding caves around mammoth. I have been here before but my granddaughter had never been to a cavern before and since this is a one-hour tour I thought it was a very good starting place. Cavern is not extremely big and not a lot of smooth walkways and there are some areas you have to scale down some Rock steps. Some are not real high and I had to go down backwards. I am 6'1" but in pretty good shape. Would not recommend this tour for those with some mobility issues. But it is definitely a tour worth taking. A very neat history with this cavern. Some neat fossils from back in the day when there was water over Ohio. Some cool sediment formations from the glaciers as well. And other than a few brief areas, unlike other caverns, you're welcome to touch all of the rocks. Since there is a drought in Ohio now we made it down to the seventh level to see the water. Usually it stops at the 6 level for the river going through there. Tour guide was extremely informative and definitely took her time and did not rush us through at all as well as answering all questions. The cave is of course a constant 54°, and is very humid. Neat thing about this cavern is it does not have a lot of dripping water like some caverns, Above-ground my granddaughter really enjoyed the mining for minerals part and got a very nice bag of minerals. Staff again was extremely friendly and helpful and the gift shop although small, has quite a nice selection of shirts and many other items as well as drinks and snacks. If you don't mind a little twisting and turning when climbing down and up, plus with the humidity you get a little bit of a workout, it is well worth the price to go through here and I would highly recommend if you have younger kids paying the extra $5 to let them mine for...

Our 4 year old has been obsessed with visiting a cave since learning about them in preschool. This was the closest one to us so we decided to make it into a Sunday family day trip. We figured we didn’t have much to lose. I hate driving, but this trip was honestly worth it. We live about 1hr 45min away and spent about 2 hours at Seneca Caverns (20 minutes purchasing tickets, looking through the gift shop, and waiting for the tour to begin, 1 hour tour, 30 minutes doing the gem mining outside, 10 minutes taking family photos and loading up). I’m not sure what some people were expecting. It’s literally a crack in the earth some kids in the middle of Ohio found on accident.

Did I say it isn’t cool though? I didn’t. Because it is!

I’m not sure we were fully prepared for the inside. My advice is to wear some solid shoes. There are certainly slippery parts, areas you have to squeeze through, and tight spots where you might bump your head. The heart palpitations from watching your 4-your-old climb over uneven rocks situated directly next to 20 foot falls as they swat away your hand offering help is half the fun, right? Holding your breath each time you’re scrambling past what looks like a perfect place to make a misstep and tumble into a darkened pit below truly gives a parent a rush!

We had three adults along with kids ages 4, 6, 9, and 10. You might want to skip taking an infant or your great grandparents…. but then again, you do you. I’m an obese woman pushing 40, in addition to being severely anemic, and I found it to be a pleasant sort of challenging. If you have children, buy the kid package with the sand bag o’ gems. That’s worth the extra $5 for sure.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Meaning we went once, and we’re so glad we did. Don’t miss out on adding this earth crack to your...

I would love to give Seneca Caverns 4-5 stars, but some work needs to be done in one practical area: social distancing.

My husband and I love caves. He has visited Mammoth several times, and we generally do a cave tour every time we visit an area with a good cave. Seneca Caverns are lovely, and when we saw the mask requirement, we were glad to see they'd be following appropriate guidelines for a mostly-indoor situation.

However, each time our guide came to a regular stopping point to explain a cavern feature, he waited until we filled in the space--and I mean filled in--urging us to stand quite a bit closer than six-feet apart.

To be honest, I don't love that under normal circumstances. I am happy to obey instructions and not be that troublesome "straggler," but I'd rather not stand super close to other people in a confined underground space.

If we had known the group size would be that large and the guide would be urging customers to fill in overly-small spaces, we would not have taken this tour during a pandemic.

It would be great if Seneca Caverns could either 1. reduce the tour size to 10-15 tops, to easily remove the issue or 2. don't urge people to crowd in together when it's not necessary.

I'm writing this review with an eye toward the best for all. Glad to see any park...