Reviews of Crystal Lake Cave (Tourist Attraction)

Joel Martin

I really enjoyed it! As did all kids I was with. Make sure you bring a sweater and shoes that can get a little wet. Guide was quirky and fun, and gift shop was neat and well put together.

Joseph Goff

We enjoyed it fun little attraction.

Randall WILLIAMS

Love this place. Started my love for splunking.

Colton Barnhart

Fun family friendly cave walk. Inexpensive. About 45 minutes guided tour

Big Chuck da Yooderhas

What a horrible experience. From an owner on the phone belittling an employee and completely ignoring guests; then when we went to the counter to inquire about the next tour time - this same owner shields her face and continues discussing confidential information about an employee in front of two complete strangers!!! Hands down the absolute worst customer experience we've ever witnessed and would strongly advise anyone to go somewhere else.

Jerry Warmbein

Fun place to visit. My kids had a great time.

Andrew Cuming

Awesome cave, a lot of fun, it is gorgeous inside, I highly recommend

Sarah Gesiakowski

Great stop on a hot day. Been in caves before. This one was more personal of a tour. It was fun. Not too long. Enjoy exploring.

Carrie N

Awesome experience! Great for all ages. A toddler got a bit scared but otherwise great fun. The guide was super. A little cool and wet. Wear a jacket. Wear good shoes they may get a bit wet with the small puddles. Well worth the money.

Manal Al-gailani

Great experience though I would recommend getting closed toe shoes when going in the cave because there are cave kisses (aka water that has iron and calcium) and there are bigggggg puddles things are really expensive though for cloths but other than that really great experience and amazing for toursists

Sariah Meyers

I absolutely LOVED this place! Great for family outings, dates or personal trips. The type guides are fantastic! You learn a lot. It's a nice sight. The view of the water underground is breathtaking! We picked up a pressed penny and a Geode to break open with our kids. Next time my husband and come back we plan on scheduling one of the private tours where you get to go through the crawl spaces with a guide! Highly recommend Crystal Lake Caves to everybody!

Julie Kramer

Gift shop was over priced

Leah D

Stopped here on a family trip. My whole family loved it, even my 2 year old. You have to take the guided tour (otherwise you would definitely get lost in all the tunnels). It's easy to traverse, but there is water on the ground and some narrow and low passageways. There weren't any bats when we went, but sometimes there are, so be aware of that. The guide told us they recently started spelunking in less explored areas. This is for adventurous people, who aren't claustrophobic and don't mind belly crawling. You'd have to call for more details.

Katie Dilley-Fetty

It was a blast! For $15 you get to experience the caves in the natural state! My 9 year old niece and 6 year old niece enjoyed it a lot! They are in girl scouts and wanted to get their cave badges. Make sure you take a light jacket with …

Linda Phillips

Great tour for the whole family.

Laney Walker

Closed permanently, and they didn't decide to update the website.

Adoniah Hansen

Absolutely beautiful and the guide was knowledgeable and energetic!

Andi Kreul

Great cave to visit.

Jackie Woodward

I love Crystal Lake Cave.

Ronna Szpekowski

Beautiful adventure

Meghan Hupp

Really pretty limestone cave! Easy for people to walk in, too!

Christina Mireles

Nice cute cave. Privately owned and nice staff. Thought it would be more than what it was.

Rebecca Vorwald

Beautiful cave! Good prices! Nice guides!!!

bruce kienitz

Cool cave!

Christen Breckenridge

Worth the trip to see this beautiful cave! Interesting trivia, wonderful people and worth the 4 hour trip! We are definitely going back! P.S it's a cave, the people that complained about being wet...here's your sign.

Bridgette King

Very neat tour! Kids loved it and we will be back soon!

David Fields

Great Tour Guide! Very knowledgeable and Informative!

Ryan Bobula

Well worth the short trip from Galena. A must if you are in the area!

Barry Wernke

Nice cave. Lot of cool formations.

Sarah Harrison

Great cave!

Bruce Hunter

Pretty cool cave.

Jen L

Such a cool place! The guided tour is approximately an hour long. The tour guide was very informative (it blows my mind that she's able to remember all that information!) There are some really cool looking formations inside the cave. Definitely a unique experience!

Katelyn Adams

Absolutely amazing!! Our tour guide was great and knowledgeable and the crystals in the caves were breath taking. Make sure you bring a sweatshirt and good shoes because it's cold and wet in some spots in the cave. Worth the money and would definitely go again!

Anusha Subramanian

It was a great experience..staff over there were friendly and helpful. This would be good for some one looking for different experience and interested in exploring caves

Heather O'Donnell

Great experience. My boys (12 & 7) loved it. Beautiful formations and a knowledgeable guide.

Tammy Moore

Cave was beautiful. Our tour guide WIll was awesome. Knew how to work a crowd and keep it interesting.

Samantha Cummings

Awesome wet, drippy cave tour at 52 degrees. Lots of neat unique formations. White onyx and pure calcite formations. Our 3 young kids loved it! Gem mining is available through the gift shop. Recommend getting the large tan bag to sift rather than the small bags. It is much more worth the price tag.

Bryan H

A "Cool" place to visit! Literally. It was in the upper 90's today when we visited and I was about to die of the heat. That is until we went down into the cave. It was 50 degrees in there, and it felt great! I didn't want to leave. The tour was pretty cool too seeing all the different formations of stalagmites and stalactites. If you need a place to cool off on a hot summer day, this is a great place for that!

Courtney Carter

Very cool.. My kids loved it.. It is chilly no matter the outside temp so follow the advise on their website and dress for the chill like we did and you will have a great time! Excellent tour guides.

Debbie Weichman

Wonderful place great cave tour!

Alan Stevens

Tour was close to an hour. Plenty of interesting things to see within the cave. The people were really nice there. Worth seeing as a couple or with the family. Not recommend for folks that have trouble walking. Don't wear sandals!

Gary & Nancy Meyer

Was a very different cave than most I have been in. Some nice formations and a lot of narrow passageways. If you like caves, would recommend this one as it is different than the usual.

Cheryl Burrington

A very nice cave tour with no waiting!

Haley Page

It's a great place to see!

Jami Tharp

This is an awesome experience!! The tour guide was awesome, patient and answered every question thrown her way. This was a spur of the moment thing we decided to do when we were in town for a weekend getaway with a couple friend of ours. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ky Olson

Highly recomend for a family trip!! They incorporate stories and imagery with the formations which makes it very kid friendly. It was about a half hour tour which is short for $15 a person bit it was a great experience. This cave was more cave like with sharp turns and tight spaces and low ceilings which was a great unique experience!

Jana Taylor

Interesting, but only 3 stars for two reasons. We were here a couple years back and that was 5 stars, guide was amazing and tour was longer. This time guide was poor, sounded like she was reading from a script, the tour was also so short, we didn't see all the things we did last time. They skipped sections we saw last time. Felt short changed. Will not be back.

Carol Lucht

Was a spur of the moment decision to go here. We were a group of 3 so we had a nice, slow paced tour. Very interesting!

Lynn Kamrowski

Great cave. Tour group was a little larger than it probably should be in my opinion. Cave can be a bit narrow and low ceilings which I think is more cool. I'm 5'8 and I probably had to duck my head almost half the time. Parking is in the lawn and not much of an area. Probably one of the smaller caves I've been too but would definitly come back again. Forgot our guides name but he did a good job.

Kevin Knapp

Beautiful formations an easy walking tour for young and old . Grandkids were in awe just like their parents were years ago.

Kim20ization

CiCi did our tour and she was so nice.

Lauren Corredor

Really nice. Bring a jacket if you get chilly easily!

ben kemp

Not very interesting, ive seen better caves

Michelle Jones

View is ok. Restroom is disgusting. I mean really really disgusting!

Jake Putz

Figuratively as well as literal sense of the word, Crystal Lake Cave is indeed a GEM! While traveling it is inevitable one will see billboard's and most likely give little thought to it thereafter. My significant other and I were very …

george didur

Great and easy tour.

austin woodin

My family had a great time. We had ages from 3 to 40 and all had fun. Might want to bring a jacket, it's a constant 51 degrees in the cave year round.

Travis J

Pretty cave, nice staff, but it could be a little cheaper

tom lion

if you got the time do it.very fun

Tristan Miller

Great place to see and the tour guides do an amazing job!

Audrey Mitchell

It was amazing. They have an awesome your guide. The can is real cave, 100 feet underground. There is even crystalations. The tour guide is nice.

Patrick Utz

Was in Dubuque for an event and wanted to take my kids on something fun while in town. We go to zoos a lot so passed on the aquarium. Chose the cave. Kids had fun on the 45 minute tour but got a little long for the 5 and 2 year old. 8 year old really enjoyed it. Tour guide was okay...knowledgeable but didn't have the wow factor after paying $29 for admission. This is overpriced. Paid for a bag of sand and rocks to pan for in their outdoor panning station. The place just had tourist trap written on it but it was still a good way to let the kids run around.

Steve Spencer

Neat cave!

T Duncan

Went out on opening weekend this year. Just as much fun bringing the young'uns as it was visiting as a kid myself.

Ulyana Zimniakova

Great place. Very nice tour. Kids had a ton of fun.

Mitchell Grootscholten

Great to walk around here. On several spots it is very narrow and very low. The guide is brilliant and has very well knowlodge of the cave. Tells you a lot. Everywhere are marked spots with self given names. You must visit this cave and look for yourself. I can sure recommend this.

Andrew T

This place is a must see for any and all rock lovers. This place is amazing. The tour guide knows his stuff and they also sell bags of dirt and sand full of polished rocks, crystal, and fossils for the kids to take out side and pan in this little stream they made. The kids had blast and so did I. They let you take lots of pictures and tell you history of area and the cave.

Janet Lofstuen

Fascinating place to take a 10 year old!

m m

Wonderful nature, you can find out how amazing could be under this ground that you walk on it.

Caleb K

Awesome cave and great tour guide!

Charlie HOLLENSED

Neat to see so close to home. No long but not too short. Cool even in summer. A coat, fleece or sweater is good. the path is not claustrophobic. I would call and confirm hours before venturing out. The cost is modest and the location very convenient to Dubuque

devina patterson

Friendly and nice experience

Brian Szydzik

My son and I went on the Wild Cave Tour for his 13th birthday. Wow! What an amazing experience. We have been to Mammoth Cave, Meramec Cave, Cave of the Mounds, etc... this was by far the best experience of them all. Crawling through passages that are barely wide enough to get through, drinking from the underground spring, seeing the forming stalactites, all were amazing. The guide was great also (Eli). It is muddy so dress appropriately.

Marcus Turner

This place is a totally retro cave like we visited when I was a kid. Guide did a great job. Small cave but fun. Swag in gift shop was too retro for my taste.

Marty Hitzeman

Very cool

L Washburn

Great tour guide! Pretty cave. Good prices.

Michael Peters

It's interesting to see the cave. It's not a cavern... Enjoyable.

Ashley Stoeber

Fun stop while in the area. Definitely recommend close toed shoes due to small amounts of standing water. Really enjoyed the tour and the area.

Timothy Spelman

Great tour guide easy pace to view.

Debra Sell

Beautiful

Lisa Wells

Very enjoyable expirence! The cave was beautiful and our guide Kathryn was friendly & informative!

Jadelyn Richardson

I think it is a cool cave and I was happy I was short enough that I didn't have to duck all the time. There was a lot of cool crystal formations and other stuff. The bad thing was you had to step puddles of water almost all the time! But otherwise it was amazing.

Daniel Smith

Great place and great tour!

Jim Singer

The cave is a great place to visit, tons of rock formations a d lots of history. It can get wet down their so don't forget some good shoes.

Bethany S

My kids loved the tour and sifting sand. We bought bags of sand with gemstones in them from the gift shop that had full size stones and a spear head in them. Well worth the trip!

Erin McHugh

It was awesome and the tour guide was great!

Schelby Cruz

Best part of are trip was going to this cave we all loved it !!!

Arie Williams

Very interesting place to visit.

me me

Really a life changing experience

Jason Yeager

Very fun to visit again. Awesome tour guide!

Tandi Winder

Great tour!

Candie Mendez

Staff was really great, and the cave was cool to see

4 Da Love of Chocolate hannah

Lots of live formations and amazing staff

Linnea Crowther

Super cool! More extensive than we expected, and beautiful rock formations throughout the cave.

Sean Jarnagin

Was a fun place

Paul Pausch

Very cool experience! (51 degrees lol)

S Voltz

Really cool place! Guide was awesome and really knowledgeable. Staff in the gift shop are super friendly! Highly recommend!

Chethan Prasad

Nice place to spend half a day watching the place. Entry fee for adults is 14 $ and children is 7$. Kids below 4years are not charged. Get good shoes and a jacket. The temperature inside cave can go down to 50 degrees. They gave a nice gift shop. The guide is amazing.

Ultimate Creeper

The tour guide was very nice and we enjoyed our time at this wonderful cave.

Anthony Castro

Nice staff and cool cave but space gets a little tight at times.

Mahdi Alsalem

Amazing you must go there

Josh Uselman

The hours say open...drove there and they were closed.

Adam Shroyer

Fun experience to share with your family. I was surprised this cave was tucked away so close to home. Be prepared to wait until the tour time. You need to purchase your ticket and wait until it starts. Call ahead to find out the intervals …

Kelly Bennett

Awesome place

Heidi Shroyer

This cave was a great experience, even for our kids ages 3&5. It is all very level, only stairs were down to cave and up from cave. The cave was well kept, and our tour guide made the tour fun. Good experience and I would recommend!

Mary Johnson

The end of the cave was closed because of drainage/rain water issues and couldn't see the Lake. Formations are cool.

Gary Brandt

Very interesting place! Guide was informative and friendly and did a nice job of pointing out the different formations inside of the cave. They do give military a discount! Very nice of them to do so.

Susan Lampe

My husband & I enjoyed our cave tour. It felt great inside the cave with it being hot outside. Our tour guide was great & very knowledgeable.

Kevin Crowe

Awesome formations.

T C

Fastest cave tour I have ever been on. Bring your track shoes. (Maybe limit group size.) Great cave from what I saw.

Lawrence Tom

The unexpected treasures you can find following the advice of a billboard. I was looking to explore on my drive out to the Field of Dreams movie site and saw this billboard coming and going so I decided to stop. I was already planning to go to the Cave of the Mounds but had plenty of time to kill. Between the Mounds and this one, I think the Crystal Cave is better and more interesting with a lot more features. I would do both as they are different. The Crystal Cave is a better squeeze your way through and step in puddle kind of place and the Mounds is more refined hallways and large bored tunnels to get you around. I personally like the little more natural feel of the Crystal Cave and it had easily twice as many features to be amazed at.

Molly Baccam

Awesome place to go visit! A must see. The staff was super friendly!

Leszek Saliszewski

Very nice place , but be careful , specially big person - watch your head , water proof shoes maybe good idea and light jacket

Kayln Hess

Crystal Lake Cave was a great tour and money well spent. People who are complaining about getting wet don't understand how caves work. If they were to make it a dry environment they would stop the formation of the cave. Not to mention that …

Leon Ungier

Very interesting place. One problem is the guided tour. It wasn't really guided for us. Our hide was very unprofessional. Sure, there was a guide but we've been not right behind her and couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. Yes, all of us walked single file in the cave because the passages ate very narrow. But on other tpurs, the guide would talk only in places where everybody is reasonably close to the guide. Also, she didn't bother to wait for everybody at places where path I was branching in two different direction. We were got lost for a while.

JJ R

Pretty awesome cave tour here in Iowa. They do have other tours where you get to crawl deep into the caves compared to the regular tour. Great for kids and nice to cool off from the summer heat lol.

Miranda Miller

Pretty awesome views! Has a fun activity for the kids. Not a lot of parking. So glad we stopped here to visit!!

Bill Rowland

Took family their for the first time really awesome learn alot great thing to do with everyone .

Will House

A wonderful stop on a HOT day! Very interesting and a great break in the day! We were glad we stumbled upon it!

Adam McCarter

This is a really cool little hidden gem a short drive from Dubuque or Galena. The cave had some neat history and interesting formations, and the tour guide was great. Great for a hot summer day, too, as the cave is always cool inside.

Melanie 50036

The tour was good but very rushed...but we went on a holiday weekend :/ . It is a very gorgeous cave system and it has some awesome and unique features and formations to look at!

Krishnan S

Little bit smaller than I expected. Overall good experience . Friendly staff. Not too expensive. Took my 5 yr old for the first time. He was all excited and enjoyed the time in cave. End of the day that's what matters

Andrew Kelly

The scientific allure of this location is indescribable. The staff were wonderfully accommodating, and we enjoyed the witty and informative tour guide!

Leesa Hebert

I was expecting this to be like maquoketa caves. But you have to pay for a tour. It is neat that's there are real crystals in this cave but you are not allowed to touch them. I completely understand though. I just think it's a bit expensive and not what I was looking for.

Mandi Roggy

We had a blast!!! Tour guide was great and gift shop staff was very friendly and helpful!!

Moe Vik

It was so beautiful in the cave. So many different formations to see. The owner Julie was wonderful! I would recommend seeing this amazing cave. The crazy part is you would never know there was a cave in this hilly field .

Kelly Johnson LDH

So fun, great for kids too.

Teresa Bales

Cave open until 6. Got there at 5:10, and was told last group leaves at 5. We did not see that on their website. The tour guide came up and got us and tour was over by 5:27. The guide seemed miserable, and gave her input in monotone sentences. We were shown shapes that " looked like a bird" not much education. Back of the group could not even see what she was talking about. When you walk out there is a sign asking for tips, when the entry fee was quite expensive for what it was. Not very impressed with how they valued their customers.

Kristopher Kaiser

Neat little geological tourist spot. My girlfriend and I went on an hour long tour of the limestone cave and we had a blast! The stalactites were cool to see in person and I grabbed a lot of memorable photos.

salah abuhammoud

Very interesting place to visit, the tour guide was knowledgeable and funny. We walked 45 minutes inside the caves. Unique place should be supported and protected.

Joshua Carroll

Great 30s style roadside attraction. Enjoy some non - corporate fun and stop by.

Lisa Kreul

It was an awesome cave for a splunker.

Geoffrey Jens

Very long cave structure.

Birds Nest

It was a none commercialized cave and showed its natural beauty.

Jessie Lucht

Tour guide was very informative and funny! Made our small group feel very welcome.

Rebecca Chiodo

Our kids really enjoyed the tour. Staff was friendly. The panning for fossils was neat with several shark teeth in it.

who is i ?

Tour guide was very nice and answered all our questions.

Jackson Wilson

Great tours and just a fun place in general

Justin

A very cool cave, our tour guide Hannah tooks us on a very informative 45 minute trip through the cave. We had a group of 16 with 8 of them being kids and she did a great job. The kids loved it and so did the adults.

Diane N Matt Oswalt

This was an awesome cave, lots to see, easy walking too!!!!

Christina Hiracheta

This was a great tour. The tour guide was great and the experience was amazing!

greg r

I've lived in Iowa my whole life and never heard of this cave.I'd say this is a must see if vacationing in the Dubuque/Galena area. Very fun guide lead a group of 10 of us on an hour tour.if you arrange in advance you can have a tour deeper into the cave. Excellent attraction!

Bridgy Strel

So much fun for the family!!

Dean Charles

Nice hour long tour, good guide, nice gift shop, nice parking. Nice way to spend an hour or so. There are steps and tight passageways, so not all folks will be able to enjoy the cave. If you're a "caver" you'll find this cave a bit on …

Ivan Dzanev

The tour is about 45 minutes by guide. As in most caves, it's a good idea to have a light jacket because it's about 50 degrees. Hiking boots are recommended. The gift shop is not too big, but there is an interesting collection of stones. The staff there are kind and polite.

Ben Dorr

Hidden gem! Real spelunking, not for overly large people though.

Nor Dan

It is ok, not high ceilings but ok for kids. Take care if you are really BIG, there are narrow and low spots in the aisles.