United States Show cave
Carter Caves State Resort Park
12 °C inside, all year.
C. Bedford Crenshaw · Attribution
The descent
The entrance, at 318 m.
The real relief above Carter Caves State Resort Park, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
318m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
20m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
12 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 12 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 30 °C at the entrance, 18 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to September.
- 4°-5°Jan
- 6°-4°Feb
- 12°0°Mar
- 18°6°Apr
- 23°12°May
- 28°16°Jun
- 30°18°Jul
- 30°18°Aug
- 27°14°Sep
- 20°7°Oct
- 12°1°Nov
- 6°-3°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
State park in Kentucky, USA
Carter Caves State Resort Park is a show cave in United States. The entrance is at 318 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket required
- Olive Hillnearest town · 9.4 km in a straight line
- Parking 320 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.6 km from the entrance
- Tri-State Airport / Milton J. Ferguson Field (HTS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 49 km in a straight lineCar hire at HTS airport (Huntington)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 6other cave entrances within 3 kmHorn Hollow Cave, X-Cave, Laurel Cave and 3 more
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 16car parks within 2 km
- 4information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 4campsites within 8 kmEagles Nest, Johson Homeplace, Carter Caves Campground and 1 more
- 17hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmThe Spanish Manor Motel and 16 more
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Olive Hill9.4 km in a straight line
- Grayson16 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Carter Caves State Resort Park.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas5 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 4 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 23 | 28 | 30 | 30 | 27 | 20 | 12 | 6 |
| Afternoon | 4 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 23 | 28 | 30 | 30 | 27 | 20 | 12 | 6 |
| Night | -5 | -4 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 7 | 1 | -3 |
| Rain (mm) | 74 | 82 | 94 | 108 | 118 | 102 | 117 | 80 | 84 | 90 | 76 | 96 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 11 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.2 | 3.8 | 4.9 | 6.7 | 7.1 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 7.9 | 7.1 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 2.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 13 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4 | 4 | -5 | 74 | 3.2 |
| Feb | 6 | 6 | -4 | 82 | 3.8 |
| Mar | 12 | 12 | 0 | 94 | 4.9 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 6 | 108 | 6.7 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 12 | 118 | 7.1 |
| Jun | 28 | 28 | 16 | 102 | 8.4 |
| Jul | 30 | 30 | 18 | 117 | 8.0 |
| Aug | 30 | 30 | 18 | 80 | 7.9 |
| Sep | 27 | 27 | 14 | 84 | 7.1 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 7 | 90 | 5.6 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 1 | 76 | 4.6 |
| Dec | 6 | 6 | -3 | 96 | 2.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (318 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 109% | 144% | 106% | 117% | 116% | 82% | 78% | 96% | 92% | 136% | 73% | 74% |
| 2021 | 113% | 134% | 99% | 74% | 60% | 132% | 108% | 130% | 92% | 91% | 52% | 94% |
| 2022 | 140% | 175% | 65% | 73% | 99% | 80% | 127% | 135% | 35% | 26% | 94% | 54% |
| 2023 | 143% | 100% | 92% | 60% | 67% | 63% | 116% | 107% | 42% | 68% | 55% | 68% |
| 2024 | 158% | 86% | 86% | 108% | 106% | 72% | 74% | 89% | 148% | 6% | 135% | 96% |
| 2025 | 79% | 182% | 70% | 169% | 129% | 104% | 97% | 21% | 126% | 103% | 110% | 55% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Carter Caves State Resort Park
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 318 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Ohio Caverns
United States · 213 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 385 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Zane Shawnee Caverns
United States · 227 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 384 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Horse Cave
United States · 279 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 193 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q5047138) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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