Carter Caves State Resort Park

Excellent place to stay. Love the cottages. Perfect place to stay. Plenty of room, very nice and clean.

Service: 5

construction everydsy of my trip at tge cabin. Strangers at and around it the entire time. Toilets clogged every use, dish washer leaked, my kids feet were black from walking barefoot inside the cabin, dirty!

Service: 5

Great place to visit

Service: 5

Great place to explore!

This is a gorgeous state park. There’s a lot of hiking trails and cave exploring that you can do. That is mostly what this state park consists of. Most of the caves you have to have a tour guide and buy tickets at the Welcome Center, but there are 2 that you can explore on your own, but you have to get a permit from the Welcome Center for both of those. I would say that anyone who wants to visit this park, would be better off to do it without small kids. There isn’t a lot to do as far as entertainment for young children. They have a putt-putt course but they didn’t keep it maintained so it was a mess and there were a lot of things that were broken or falling apart. However, we played anyway and enjoyed it. They gave us a discount because of its condition. There are horseback rides available and I believe it was $22 per/person for 45 minutes, or you can bring your own horse and ride/walk the trail. They have campsites there as well and they weren’t very private and didn’t look very well maintained either. Sadly. We stayed in the Lodge. It’s been there since 1981 so it wasn’t in immaculate shape or anything but they did keep it looking nice and cozy. The floors squeak and it has a musky smell to it, but it is sitting right in the middle of a “forest” and has been around for a while. They have a restaurant downstairs called Tierney’s Restaurant and they serve breakfast (which was AMAZING), lunch (which we didn’t try), and dinner (also very tasty)! The prices are what you’d normally pay at any “nice” sit down restaurant these days. My family of 5 cost us about $75. Of course, that price is based on the food you choose to order. The rooms are “ok” for its age. The beds are very uncomfortable and the pillows are very firm. (Just my opinion). My family did not sleep good at all. 😟 The lodge doesn’t have vending machines (except one pop machine by the lobby bathrooms), and town is about 8 miles away so if you plan to stay overnight then perhaps you may need to stop and get some snacks and drinks on your way in. They do have a few snacks behind the counter of the lobby that you can buy.
All of the rooms have doors leading directly outside and they all have balconies off the back. We went on a cave tour of Cascade Cave the last day we were there and that was pretty awesome. I would highly recommend that! Other than that, they had a mining station at the Welcome Center where you can buy a bag of sand from inside and then take it outside and let the kids (and adults, like me), mine for gems/crystals. That was fun, and my kids and I enjoyed that while my husband watched. 😁 Overall, I would say it’s a park better suited for older children and adults, or it would make a nice getaway for adults that just want a nice weekend away and enjoy hiking and caving. It’s a beautiful place, just not a whole lot to do otherwise. P.S. They also have cottages that you can rent, they looked pretty nice! 👍

Service: 5

Nice place

Service: 5

Exceptional beautiful with fall colors with winding roads & trails ! My favorite was tunnel through the mountain !

Fun times exploring some beautiful land

Wonderful campground in a wonderful state park lots of nature trails and paths to walk
Camping spots are narrow, level from side to side
Some of the spots are very unlevel front to rear, one camper I saw and talked to had to remove his platform to lower his tongue to level (see photo), but the majority are level. Some of the spots like mine were a very very long reach for electric and water so you may need an extension for both.
The rest rooms are clean and ADA, and they have one paved walking path. I would highly recommend a trip to here, great place.

Service: 5

Lovely park with endless recreation, a laundry room, hot showers, and wonderful customer service. It was fabulous to be able to camp here in the fall.

Great place to hike and explore

Food and drinks: The restaurant has great food. There fish is great.

Service: 5

Really pretty park with lots to do. Cave tours were wonderful & loved our guide ,
Jamieson. She was very good with the kids & very informative. We'll camp there again in better weather & be able to to the other 2 caves.

Fun cave tours and hiking.

Service: 4

Had a great weekend exploring the caves and rest of the trails around the park. Rooms are clean and quiet, slightly out of date, but everything was terrific.

Service: 5

Great place to visit on a vacation!!!

Service: 5