What to bring?
Stroller?
No, really loose gravel
Restrooms?
At visitors center
We got to Bandera Crater during one of the daily afternoon storms we experienced due to it being monsoon season. The good news is that these travel through quickly so we grabbed an icecream sandwich from the gift shop to help pass the time! Once we saw the rain had passed, we bought our tickets, which was $12 for adults and free for our children.
We were advised to start the trail by doing the volcano crater first, so that after the hike up the hill, you can end in the nice cold ice cave to cool back off! We followed the recommendation and made the trek up the hill to the crater. All along the way you could see tons of hardened lava rock left over from the eruption that took place 10,000 years ago. Once we made it to the crater, you could see how one side was collapsed due to the lava that flowed for the next 17 miles.
We then took a connecting trail to the ice cave, which was formed due to the hardening of the lava flow. The way the cave was formed, the temperature inside never gets above 31 degrees. This causes the rainfall and snow melt that runs into it to freeze, creating an ever growing ice floor that will one day close the cave completely. We enjoyed climbing the steep staircase down into the cave, but our daughter was ready to go! She didn’t like the freezing cold and was covered in goosebumps instantly!
We made our way back to the gift shop, completing the nearly 2 mile hike. Once there, we noticed there was a mining flume. Our daughter has a fascination with rocks so we knew this would be something she would love! In the gift shop we purchased an $8 bag of dirt with gems hidden inside. Our daughter LOVED sifting through and finding the gems that were uncovered. They also gave us a card where we could identify the gems, so our daughter also loved finding the pictures of her gems and hearing their names. They gave her a bag to keep the rocks, and it ended up being her favorite souvenir!
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