Enchanted Rock... er... Cascade Caverns

So from Llano we drove to Enchanted Rock.  And they were packed.  We detoured toward home and stopped at Cascade Caverns (near Boerne).

Now Cascade Caverns reminded me of a roadside attraction.  The kind that's advertised with billboards on the highway: "Only 2 More Miles Until... THE THING!"  There's a ramshackle gift shop, large campground, big fiberglass T-Rex (that appears in the Patrick Swayze film, Father Hood), and a limestone cave.  That being said, Cascade Caverns was better than I expected.

The tour is 1 hour (and $11) and covers about a quarter mile.  The cave is so small that you are much closer to the features than you are at other cave tours.  And the cave does have many modest features.  It claims to the "wettest" cave in Texas, which means that there are active formations.  Plenty of "soda straws," a waterfall in the final (and large) room (which is dry due to the current Texas drought), and a few examples of "cave bacon."

There are a couple of Mastodon fossils in the cave, and we got a very close-up look at a hibernating bat (tiny little guy about the size of your thumb).