Crawford State Park feels like it's at the end of the earth, and its star attraction, Gardner Cave, feels like the center of the earth.

Tucked away in the northeast corner of Washington, near the U.S.-Canada and Washington-Idaho borders, Crawford State Park is an unassuming day-use park – on the surface. But a tour of Gardner Cave reveals an underworld of deep geologic mystery. Gardner Cave is a 500 million-year-old cavern that measures approximately 2,072 feet in length and 295 feet in depth. Its floors, ceilings and walls are rich with stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone and rimstone pools. These features, which your interpretive guide will teach you to recognize, are illuminated by electric lighting. Adults and kids who bring flashlights will have fun shining their beams into dark corners, and flash photography is allowed inside the cave. 

Hailed as a "natural wonder" by the 1911 federal land survey that mapped it, Gardner Cave is not only one of Washington's longest caves, it offers easy access and one of the most intriguing underground landscapes in the western U.S. 

Nab one of 10 first-come, first-served picnic tables; choose a sheltered table, a table at the cave's entrance, or a table on the U.S.-Canada border, among others. Warm up in the park or cool down in the cave, but remember to layer your clothing. This place at the "end of the earth" gets hot in the summer, and temperatures may drop to 39 degrees on your way to the cave's center.

State Parks Tagged With: Metaline Falls