The rolling, cedar-studded Hill Country northwest of San Antonio covers intriguing secrets. Minutes from San Antonio off I-10 West, Cascade Caverns offers a variety of discoveries to delighted visitors. This oldest show cave in Texas has been wowing folks since opening for tours in 1932 with the fragile beauty and fantastic formations carved millions of years ago by an underground river whose presence is still felt in the limestone passageways. Festooned with a variety of stalactites, stalagmites, calcite draperies, ceilings of grape-like botryoids and impressive solution domes chiseled by ancient whirlpools, a vivid green cast to many of the crystalline formations adds a fairy-tale quality to this subterranean world.

Your journey begins at Exit 543 off I-10 West and leads along the winding Cascade Caverns Road, past Hill Country farmhouses and friendly scarecrows, to the shady picnic area and Visitors Center that mark the caverns' entrance. You'll know you're there when you see the giant tyrannosaurus Rex -- a left-over prop from the Patrick Swayze movie, "Father Hood," which shot some memorable scenes of a family on the lam making an unplanned escape through the caverns. (A brief clip of the movie's cave sequence is an added feature to the informative, 10-minute video on how caves are formed to which seated visitors are treated in a theater/display room prior to cave tours.)

19th-Century Hermit's Home

Above ground, the scenic, 105-acre park, which includes picnic tables, barbecue pits, a covered pavilion and dance hall, is home to deer, turkey, raccoons, peacocks and a menagerie of contented cats. Below ground, the cave is home to a rare breed of albino salamanders. A small, ledge-like cavity at the caverns' entrance also was once home to a 19th-century German hermit. His fascinating story is chronicled in two books in the reserve section of the Boerne library, one of which, "A Wasted Life," is his own diary account.

Past the snack bar and gift shop (filled with unique souvenirs that give a nod to the area's prehistoric, Texas Hill country and modern feline inhabitants) is an unusual museum of antiques and collectibles, ranging from metal wind-up toys to wooden nickels. The small, original gift shop behind it, constructed of honeycomb rock, and the low rock walls that line the flagstone descent to the cave entrance were built by the Works Progress Administration.

A Living Cave

Cascade Caverns is an "up-close and personal" kind of cave. You still are warned not to harm the beautiful formations by touching them, but some of them just may reach out and touch you as you stoop and bob at times to avoid getting a "cave kiss" from the wet ceiling and walls in low, narrow passageways. The cave is 95 percent "alive" and growing, with thousands of gallons of water being pumped out daily to keep the passageways open.

Some of the sites you'll see include the "Wishing Well," "Giant Molar," "Rain Forest" and "Tobacco Room" -- all aptly named. You are permitted to touch the stone at the "Fountain of Youth" and to use your imagination in the "Imagination Room" to pick out the shapes of a dinosaur, an elephant's trunk, George Washington and more. The cave gets its name from the 100-foot, cascading waterfall at an underground lake at the trail's end. A raised, circular tunnel in the lake's center leads to a second cave that is off-limits to the public and requires diving gear, but is used by SWAT teams and Texas Cave Rescue for rescue drills -- a valuable service Cascade Caverns is proud to provide.

Bring your camera, a picnic lunch and your sense of wonder -- the mysteries of Cascade Caverns are waiting for you to enjoy.

Cascade Caverns
226 Cascade Caverns Road
Boerne
830-755-8080
Daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tours every 30 minutes
Adults -- $9.50
3-11 yrs. -- $5.50
2 yrs. and under -- $1