The cave tour offered at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park is rather more natural than those at Mammoth Cave National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and all the more interesting, enjoyable and exciting for that.
The cave tour route is two miles long and the tour takes two hours. It starts by taking a fairly steep uphill path from the visitor centre to the cave entrance.
Some time ago the floor of the cave along the tour route was natural and not paved, although it has now unfortunately had to be paved. This is for safety reasons and so as to establish a clear demarcation between those areas which visitors can enter and those they should not.
You often have to crouch and squeeze to get through the gaps at various places on the tour. Don't let this put you off at all - except for the path to the entrance it is not a strenuous tour, although those who are fearful of confined spaces underground might be advised to avoid it.
Despite the name, the caverns were never visited by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. However, the Expedition did visit the park area and stop for a meal there. The Expedition visited the area while searching for the source of the Jefferson River, hoping to find a navigable route to the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately the source of the Jefferson River is near Dillon, Montana and so it proved to be of no use in the Expedition's quest.
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