For the St. Mary’s Adventure Tour, participants wear harnesses and clip onto safety ropes as they climb to previously unseen parts of the San Antonio cavern

Pam LeBlanc – writer and photographer

A new tour at Natural Bridge Caverns takes visitors up rocky inclines and across slippery ledges into portions of the cave never before seen by the public.

The St. Mary’s Adventure Tour diverges from the paved pathway in the main halls of the cave and into wilder sections of the underground network. Participants wear helmets, gloves, headlamps, and harnesses, and clip onto safety ropes as they navigate tricky stretches.

“There’s lots to see back there,” says tour guide Ethan Fagan, who along with team leader John Young helped design the new tour at the cave north of San Antonio. Read more here.