Gap Cave, Virginia

Our main goal for visiting the Cumberland Gap area on this day was going to "Gap Cave" which was formerly known as Cudjo's Cave.

The hours are limited and seasonal.  We had tried to visit before, but could just never time things out right.

So, we arrived on a Saturday morning and waited for the ranger guide to arrive.  Other groups arrived to the small parking lot to wait.

Our guides came and each group paid their small fee (I think it was $8 each) and received an electric lantern to carry.

We had a great guide named Brittany who would lead as we took a good hike to the entrance of the the cave.  She told us about the old road that went through the area until 1996 when the tunnel was built and went into use.  The trail we were walking on was that former road used for cars...  and before that used by explorers to the area.  The park had also replanted trees in the area and they have tried to get it back to the parks earlier appearance.

We were told that the previous trees there (which were logged long ago) were huge, and it would take 6 men to wrap their arms around them.

The tour had a very primitive feel  with none of the common show cave lights.  Our lanterns were it.

The tour was listed as moderately strenuous and I felt like it was a good workout.  Brittany kept the pace reasonable though, and we stopped to discuss the trail and parts of the cave as we explored.

Our guide said that she wasn't sure if we would see bats, but we did!  In fact, we had a rare moment where one came and flew right past our group as we stood discussing the cave!  We also saw a couple of salamanders!

The cave was dark and winding but our guide said she felt like she could probably make it through without light at all!  I thought that was pretty impressive considering that there was one metal staircase we had to navigate (that rattled a bit) and the longest set of stairs was a bit of a tight squeeze.


My friend Rick was on this trip with us, and he grew up in Middlesboro.  He said that he took the cave tour, he thought in the early 90s when it was Cudjo's Cavern.  He thought that they drove up to the entrance and he did not remember the metal stairs.

Brittany told us that they did clean the cave out when the National Parks took it over.  There is, however, an issue with what is historic vs what is garbage.  Depending on the age of the trash, it might be considered historic, and they would have to leave it alone.  I did not notice any "historic trash" on our tour.

At the end of the cave tour and the hike back, the guides did spray a cleaner on the bottom of everyone's shoes to help prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome in bats.

We would later see Brittany again at the main Cumberland Gab visitor center!  You could tell that she loved her job working for the parks!