Great Basin National Park guide · 2 min read
Lehman Caves: Shields, Parachutes, and Ranger Tours
Lehman Caves runs roughly two miles through limestone, making it the longest known cave in Nevada.
Over time, water trickling into the rock carved out hollows using carbonic acid, a weak mix that is essentially soda water. Inside, visitors pass stalactites, stalagmites, and helictites, the last of which curl in directions that seem to ignore gravity.
The cave is best known for its cave shields. More than 500 of these formations stick out from the walls along the passages, and they look a lot like the shields they are named for. Geologists still cannot say exactly how they formed.
Every cave tour departs from the Lehman Caves Visitor Center, which sits 5.5 miles from the town of Baker at the far end of the main road in. There, you can check in for your tour and browse displays covering the cave's past, its living things, and its rock formations, along with the park's night skies.
Lehman Caves can only be toured with a ranger, and every visitor, down to the youngest toddler or infant, needs a ticket. Tours are capped at 20 people and often sell out, so booking ahead through Recreation.gov is the safest plan. Two ranger-led options are on offer, the Parachute Shield Tour and the Gothic Palace Lantern Tour, and their lengths fall between 30 and 90 minutes. People have been touring the cave since 1885, when Absalom Lehman, a local rancher, started taking visitors inside.
The Wild Cave Tour heads off the paved path into passages where you will crawl, bend, stoop, and climb, making it a strenuous outing. Groups top out at eight people, all 16 or older, who check in at the visitor center for gear and must book well ahead. The historic entrance tunnels are not accessible, though a wheelchair might squeeze through, and the steep grades make the route hard going. Ask a ranger before you go.
