United States Show cave
Mercer Caverns
15 °C inside, all year.
No machine-readable author provided. EugeneZelenko assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 652 m.
The real relief above Mercer Caverns, 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.
652m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
15°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
151m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
15 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 15 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 34 °C at the entrance, 19 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to September.
- 11°2°Jan
- 12°2°Feb
- 15°4°Mar
- 18°6°Apr
- 23°9°May
- 30°13°Jun
- 34°16°Jul
- 33°16°Aug
- 30°14°Sep
- 23°10°Oct
- 16°5°Nov
- 11°2°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.
Cave in United States of America
Mercer Caverns is a show cave in United States. The entrance is at 652 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Murphysnearest town · 2.1 km in a straight line
- Parking 40 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Stockton Metropolitan Airport (SCK)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 73 km in a straight lineCar hire at SMF airport (Sacramento)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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmMercer Caverns
- 1car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 6hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmThe Victoria Inn, Murphys Inn Motel, Treetop House and 3 more
- 10restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- campsites within 8 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
- Murphys2.1 km in a straight line
- Forest Meadows6.5 km in a straight line
- Mountain Ranch10 km in a straight line
- Angels Camp11 km in a straight line
- Columbia14 km in a straight line
- Arnold16 km in a straight line
- San Andreas18 km in a straight line
- Cedar Ridge20 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Mercer Caverns.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas10 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 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 30 | 23 | 16 | 11 |
| Afternoon | 11 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 30 | 23 | 16 | 11 |
| Night | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 98 | 98 | 97 | 56 | 28 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 34 | 64 | 122 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.3 | 6.1 | 7.3 | 9.1 | 11.5 | 13.9 | 14.0 | 13.1 | 11.2 | 9.2 | 6.6 | 4.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 11 | 11 | 2 | 98 | 5.3 |
| Feb | 12 | 12 | 2 | 98 | 6.1 |
| Mar | 15 | 15 | 4 | 97 | 7.3 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 6 | 56 | 9.1 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 9 | 28 | 11.5 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 13 | 7 | 13.9 |
| Jul | 34 | 34 | 16 | 2 | 14.0 |
| Aug | 33 | 33 | 16 | 2 | 13.1 |
| Sep | 30 | 30 | 14 | 5 | 11.2 |
| Oct | 23 | 23 | 10 | 34 | 9.2 |
| Nov | 16 | 16 | 5 | 64 | 6.6 |
| Dec | 11 | 11 | 2 | 122 | 4.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (652 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 | 37% | 1% | 116% | 119% | 124% | 36% | — | — | 12% | 0% | 56% | 46% |
| 2021 | 145% | 43% | 60% | 14% | 11% | 23% | — | — | 47% | 462% | 31% | 183% |
| 2022 | 3% | 6% | 26% | 94% | 8% | 95% | — | — | 482% | 2% | 100% | 282% |
| 2023 | 272% | 124% | 248% | 9% | 77% | 114% | — | — | 224% | 27% | 54% | 53% |
| 2024 | 139% | 172% | 135% | 90% | 91% | 5% | — | — | 35% | 15% | 115% | 86% |
| 2025 | 22% | 149% | 105% | 54% | 12% | 23% | — | — | 253% | 158% | 204% | 94% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Mercer Caverns
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 652 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
California Caverns
United States · 6 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 501 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Moaning Cavern
United States · 9 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 522 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Boyden Cavern
United States · 209 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,036 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q8342992) · 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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