Along Route 66, tucked way back by Kingman, Arizona, is what can be best described as a perfect piece of Americana. The Grand Canyon Caverns holds all the nostalgia of the type of road trips my parents and grandparents shared stories about. There is a wonderful cafe, well maintained RV park, curio shop, motel, gas station, and enough eye candy ranging from scrap metal dinosaurs to vintage vehicles, to satisfy young and old alike.

AND

Unlike most Route 66 iconic stops, this one has a giant cavern to tour and if you wish, have a unique dining experience inside.

Our family found this little gem while traveling around the Grand Canyon area in our RV. True to Milner adventure standards, we just had to tour the cave and enjoy a meal inside. Our tour guide, David, was wonderful with our rambunctious kids and all of their questions and was friendly and knowledgeable about the cave.

A little about the cave’s history:

Like most great stories, this one happened to a fellow who was down on his luck and looking to make it big. In 1927, Walter Peck was on his way to a poker game when he stopped by a funnel shaped hole in the ground. It was raining, but the hole never filled up so he investigated it only to find a large cavern that to his eyes looked to contain diamonds and gold.

At the poker game, he told his friends about what he found and soon enough they wanted to see it for themselves. They gathered some samples with the hope that all their dreams had come true. Walter, not wanting to risk losing out on his soon to be fortune, bought up the land making what was found in the cave rightfully his.

Unfortunately, when the assay report finally returned, it revealed that instead of diamonds and gold all Walter had found was iron oxides and calcium carbonate crystals – both worthless.

Not wanting to lose his investment, Walter started charging people to come explore the caves. For twenty-five cents, he’d lower them down the hole tied to a rope and let them explore. If they wanted light, they’d have to bring their own, usually a kerosene lantern. This experience came to be known by the locals as the “dope on a rope.”

Over the years there have been plenty of improvements made to the caverns, including a modern elevator installed in 1962 to lower visitors down the 210 to the cave floor. Like I said before, there is also the Grotto dining experience where you enjoy a wonderful meal inside the cave.

If you want to learn more, head over to the Grand Canyon Caverns website: https://gccaverns.com/

Recommendations:

I’d recommend this experience to anyone who loves trying new and interesting things, is into geology, and doesn’t mind heights – or stairs. The regular guided tour of the cave covers 3/4 mile, most of which is walking up steep paved slopes and stairs or going back down them. While it’s technically handicap accessible, it would be pretty tough going for anyone on wheels.

If you aren’t comfortable with heights or enclosed spaces, this might be a bit of a rougher experience. That said, you really can’t see the 210 foot drop unless you peek down the slot of the elevator door. The whole cave is well lit so it doesn’t feel closed in and it’s dry in there so it doesn’t feel stuffy either.

My family, including all the kids, loved the tour and were able to walk through the whole thing without help. I’d recommend it for ages 6 and up, only because hauling tiny people up and down through the cave would be challenging and it’s just steep enough that a stroller would be pretty hard to manage.

As for the dining experience, the food and service was amazing. Although they were super accommodating for our family of five in the small space, I would recommend it as a couples experience and not with the whole family. Our kids thought it was awesome, but the other two cute couples there weren’t expecting to have to compete with our noise and were polite but glad when we finally headed out.

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