Cave Spring information panel (click to enlarge)

Cave Spring is an interesting stop on the Natchez Trace Parkway. A short, paved path leads to a dual cave shelter: a place where ancient people sought shelter from the elements, and may have even made a permanent home in it. From the observation area near the parking lot you are looking at a very shallow cave shelter created by a sink hole. If you walk down to it for a closer look, you’ll find that there is just a sliver of an opening and the holes are now largely filled with rubble.

Sink hole at Cave Spring on the Natchez Trace Parkway (click to enlarge)

If you follow the path around to the right of the first cave shelter, you’ll find a more substantial cave that is large enough to enter (you cannot see this from the observation area). It’s dark in there, but once you get about twenty feet in you will see a small pool of water. You can’t go much farther. I doubt the entire cave is much deeper than fifty feet. A sign states that entering it is dangerous, but there is a well worn path into the cave to prove that nobody is worrying much about getting killed. However, enter at your own risk.