Cave of the Mounds

Wisconsin's colorful jewel box cave

⏱ 2 hours👤 All ages$$

The cave is small by national standards, and that is its strength: everything is close, well lit and easy to see, so the guide can stop at a single drapery and show its banding or point out a soda straw growing a hair's width per decade. The formation names lean playful — the guides have fun with them — and the colors are the surprise, because Midwestern limestone caves are often monochrome while this one runs warm and varied. The 1939 discovery story is told well, along with the efforts that followed to protect it, including its recognition as a National Natural Landmark.

Doing it right: arrive early in summer and on fall weekends, when Madison families fill the departures, or come on a weekday for a smaller group. You cannot choose between the traditional and museum-style formats — the cave decides by season and crowd — so check the schedule if one matters to you. Leave time for the surface: the gem sluice is the kids' highlight, and the Karst View trail is a short walk that makes sense of the cave you just saw by showing the sinkholes above it. Bring a light jacket for the fifty-degree air.

The setting is the Driftless Area, the corner of Wisconsin the glaciers missed, full of ridges, coulees and spring-fed streams. Blue Mounds State Park sits next door with lookout towers over the Driftless hills, Madison is about half an hour east (the Edgewater on Lake Mendota makes the elegant base), and New Glarus, Mount Horeb and the Military Ridge bike trail fill the rest of a weekend. Fit: families, couples on a Wisconsin getaway, and any traveler between Chicago and the Twin Cities with a few hours to spare.