Information Page sorry for the wall of text. This is usually how a group weekend goes but is not set in stone.
We love to help any organized groups.
The Lone Star Preserve is located in Bonnieville, Ky an hour south of Louisville.
There are multiple tent camping areas on the property. 126 acre property with 12 acres of maintained camping areas. Woods camping is allowed.
There is a shared use space at the main shelter with picnic tables, nearby potable water, electricity, and limited WIFI.
The bathrooms are porta potties. There are rustic outdoor showers weather permitting.
The potable water to the shelter spigot and showers may not be available depending on cold weather and may need to be acquired with jugs at the main water spigot at the property entrance.
Ages of participants range from Kindergarten to Adult. Younger groups will require more adults.
This is a wooded area with lots of ticks it is recommended that everyone take proper precautions.
Friday night someone will be on site to provide access and help with picking camping areas. Saturday volunteer cave trip leaders will work with everyone on getting into caves safely.
Cost is $10 per person for the weekend.
How to get this started
1) Finding an open weekend on our event calendar is the easiest way to start the process of scheduling a day.
2) Fill out the form on the
with the dates you are interested in and how many children and adults you plan on bringing.
After that someone from the Grotto will work on arranging volunteer trip leaders and locking down the date with your group.
When the date is approved the online waiver should be signed by all participants ahead of time. This makes an evening arrival less chaotic.
General cave gear for these trips
Some of this can be loaned to you with enough notice
Helmet with chin strap with at least 1 helmet mounted headlight can be duct taped or zip tied on ( bike helmets without spikes/ears/horns work well)
2 Lights – at least one already on helmet
Knee pads
Gloves – garden gloves work great
Clothes that can be damaged, torn and stained. long sleeve shirt and pants
Shoes to get wet in ( preferably with ankle support)
Durable bag for carrying (zippers are not recommended)
– extra light and batteries headlamp or handheld backups
– Snacks and a Lunch for longer trips
– 1 liter water
– any medication required during the day or for emergencies
– A person sized thick trash bag, small candle, lighter (aka hypothermia kit)
Rocks, dirt, mud and water do not care about your stuff. Do not taking anything into a cave that you are not willing to have destroyed.
The usual timeline
We operate on Eastern time; the preserve is on the Central/Eastern Time zone line so phones may switch randomly.
Friday night
Someone will be on site to provide access and help with picking camping areas.
Arrive after 7pm, Kids run around setting up tents and kitchens. Some groups use this time to divide gear, some use it for dinner or hanging out; it depends on how far they come from.
Saturday
Everyone wakes up and eat breakfast.
After breakfast cleanup is done, usually around 9am, Gear up kids and parents and break into teams of 6-10 people depending on available volunteers.
Around 10am the entire group is gathered to go over safety. There 6 caves on site we use depending on ability and willingness. Some will go to the onsite caves and some may go to nearby caves if necessary (usually within 20 min drive). There is a large cave ( Lone Star Cave) that is easy to walk into where kids and parents can get an easy quick feel if they want to do anything more complicated. Sometimes teams are changed at that time to account for comfort level. The more advanced cave is Woodcutters Cave. It is wet and sporty generally takes 2-4 hours.
Most groups eat lunch around 1-2pm as they get out of the caves and decide from there if they want to do more caving. Usually by then most kids are more tired than you think they would be and just want to relax by a fire, do projects or hike on property trails.
Sunday
Morning or afternoon everyone packs up and heads home.