About 30 feet beneath the bustling traffic of I-35, visitors can find total darkness and complete silence among the glittering calcium deposits and mineral-rich ponds of Inner Space Caverns.

Georgetown's 5-mile cave system attracts tourists from across the country hoping to explore what General Manager Taunya Vessels called one of Texas's greatest paleontological sites.

The overview

Inner Space Caverns remained undiscovered for over 10,000 years until 1963, when the Texas Department of Transportation drilled into the empty space while building a highway, Vessels said.

The department hired a team of excavators and scientists who discovered the cave system's large open areas.


In 1966, the Georgetown Corporation began leasing the property from the Laubach family, who the cave is officially named after, and opened the cave for public tours.

Vessels said the name "Inner Space" comes from the otherworldly appearance of the cave, which contains several narrow passages, oddly shaped slopes, reflective lakes and rock formations reaching down from the 20-foot ceiling.

What they offer

Inner Space Caverns offers guided tours for all ages and levels of cave-curiosity, including:
  • Adventure Tours: 60-to-75-minute paved walking tour for all ages; maximum 30 people; stroller and wheelchair friendly
  • Hidden Passage Tours: 75-minute intermediate hike through uneven terrain and smaller corridors meant for ages 7 and up; maximum 20 people; flashlights provided
  • Wild Cave Tours: two-hour climbing and crawling tour; maximum 10 people; flashlights, helmets, gloves and padding provided
Patrons can also enjoy a gift shop, snack counter and zip line on-site.


Diving deeper

Vessels said caves are common in the Central Texas area because of the soft limestone ground.

"When it rains, the rain mixes with organic matter in the ground and makes a very light carbonic acid, which soaks into the ground, and it eats away some of the rock," said Vessels, who has worked at Inner Space Caverns for almost 19 years.

Unlike caves in other parts of the country, Vessels said Texas caves are more shallow, with the deepest point of Inner Space Caverns only reaching 69 feet below the ground.


Due to the shallowness, the surrounding property is historically prone to developing sinkholes, as evidenced by the remains of extinct mammoths, saber-toothed cats, car-sized armadillos, ground sloths and peccary found in the cave, which scientists expect crawled into the openings thousands of years ago.

Quote of note

"We get people from all over the world coming here to see the cave. ... I think the mystery of it attracts people, and then they get to learn so much about our local, natural history here," Vessels said.