Recently, my little brother was home from college on spring break. We couldn’t swing a beach vacation or a tropical excursion (don’t we wish!) but we still wanted to do something fun together as a family. Luckily for us, our area is well within driving distance of plenty of fun attractions, national parks, historic sites, and big cities. Unfortunately for us, we’re big travelers and have seen most of the sights and done most of the activities. Sure, we could revisit one of our old favorites, but when it came time to buy tickets or set a date, the weather just wouldn’t cooperate.
There’s a giant billboard between our house and Knoxville, Tennessee, advertising the Lost Sea Adventure in Sweetwater, Tennessee. The billboard says “see our rainbow trout,” which I always thought was a pretty weird marketing gimmick until I met my husband. The man is obsessed with rocks and fish, and the first time he saw the billboard, he added The Lost Sea Adventure to his bucket list. As none of us had ever been before, we decided to finally go and see the rainbow trout for ourselves.
The Lost Sea Adventure is located only seven miles from I-75, making it easy to find. There are a couple of signs pointing the way there, so you won’t miss it. When you pull in, signs will direct you to the main parking area in front of the cave entrance and ticket area and to the overflow parking area across from Old Sweetwater Village. The main parking is not very large, so it was full on the day we visited.
Tours fill up fast on busy days like Saturdays, so you’ll want to head straight to the ticket area and purchase your tickets, which are $18.95 for adults and $9.95 for children ages 5-12. Children until 5 receive free admission. Once you purchase tickets, you’ll likely have a bit of a wait depending on the crowds. Our wait was about 25 minutes, which gave us time to visit Old Sweetwater Village, directly across the parking lot from the main entrance.
Old Sweetwater Village is a collection of shops, a restaurant, and a small nature trail. The restaurant offers sandwiches and barbecue, but there is also an ice cream parlor. We didn’t eat at the restaurant, as we were planning on having lunch in nearby Loudon, Tennessee, but the restaurant was full of people chowing down. The General Store offers souvenirs and post cards along with kitschy items like lucky rabbit feet. Justin was taken in by the Glassblower shop, which featured hand-made glass items like wind chimes. Everything in the Glassblower shop is breakable, so it would be advisable to visit this particular shop without the kids. The nature trail is 1/3 mile long and full of Appalachian plants and wildlife. It was still cold and wintery when we visited, so there wasn’t much to see on the nature trail. It’s best enjoyed during the spring and summer.
After our 25 minutes exploring what Lost Sea Adventure has to offer outside the cave, we were ready to begin our tour. We were on a full tour, which is about thirty people. If you want to come with a large group, you can book a private tour for your group ahead of time. You can also book Wild Cave Tours for groups of 12 or more. A Wild Cave tour is an overnight spelunking adventure through parts of the cave not open to general tourists. If you can’t find 12 people to take on a Wild Cave Tour with you, a Wild Cave Tour is available every Saturday at 1:00 and reservations are not required. For a Wild Cave Tour, you will need to bring old clothes, close toed shoes, and a flashlight. A change of clothes for after the tour is also recommended.
Luckily for us, the general cave tour is not as strenuous as the Wild Cave Tour. It is 3/4 mile round trip of walking, 1/2 mile downhill and 1/4 mile back uphill. The trail is uneven, and there’s a pretty strenuous walk back uphill. For this reason, I wouldn’t recommend this trail for the elderly, disabled, or any particularly young children that you don’t feel like carrying. The tour lasts roughly an hour and a half, but there are several rest breaks to catch your breath and learn more about the cave.
The tour of the Lost Sea is a combination of historical and geological information, featuring stories about when the cave was used and graffitied by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War, information on the discovery of the cave by a child, and an explanation about how many of the formations within the cave were created. Our tour guide, Lucas, was informative and personable. We wound up on the tour with a geologist, but he agreed with all of Lucas’s statements on the cavern, which seemed like a good sign!
At the bottom of the cave, after a 1/2 mile walk, you will come to the Lost Sea. The Lost Sea is America’s largest underground lake, and is a Registered Natural Landmark. It is stocked with rainbow trout, which you will see when you pile onto the glass bottomed boat and set sail at a leisurely two miles per hour across the underground lake. This was possibly our favorite part of the tour, partially due to the feeding of the rainbow trout mid-lake. Apparently, they eat Purina Trout Chow. Yes, it’s pretty similar to dog food. No, the trout are not natural to the lake. The 230 trout in the lake are stocked, and were originally added in to determine where the water enters and exits the cavern system. No, the trout are not albino. While I hadn’t heard that particular myth before, many visitors to the Lost Sea mistakenly believe that the trout are blind and albino. This myth was started by tour guides in the 1960s and 1970s, who thought it would attract visitors. They were right, as many tourists today still want to see the albino trout. (Justin wanted to see them without ever knowing about the albinism myth, but now we know a bit more about who those rainbow trout billboards are actually aimed at.)
The Lost Sea Adventure opens at 9 am every day, but the closing time varies by season. Shops in Old Sweetwater Village also vary their hours by season, so you may want to call ahead before visiting to confirm the hours for The Lost Sea and Old Sweetwater Village.
Have you ever been to The Lost Sea?
It sounds like you guys had an amazing visit! Those albino rainbow trout look so beautiful! I’ll definitely have to put this on my list of places to visit someday 🙂
Looks like a great place to spend the day! One of my favorite memories in my marriage was spent at a cavern. I love when they are history right long with the beauty!
What a cool place to visit with my family!!!
I’ve been to similar caves when we lived in the East Coast. I wish there were a few like this near Bay area.
I would love to go and try The Lost Sea Adventure and of course catch the rainbow trout in person!
Sounds like an amazing place to visit. I’ve never been there but would love to visit this place soon
This seems like an awesome place to visit! There seem to be a lot of little niche places like this to visit in Tennessee.
That looks really cool! I think I would love the glass bottomed boat ride the most. My kids probably would as well.
The cave hike sounds perfect to take small children on as it isn’t very long. Good for you for seeking out new places to explore that are close to home. I need to be better about that.
This looks like so much fun. I would love to visit The Lost Sea exhibit. I haven’t been to Tennessee yet.
How fun that you can book a private tour if you have enough people in your group. I think this would be awesome to do with the family!
Exploring caves sounds like a lot of fun.
We sort of settled down from doing adventurous stuff lately and would like to get back into doing more of it.
Wow this looks like a ton of fun. I’ve never seen a cave before would love to be able to explore! What a great time.
Looks and sounds like a great place to visit, I am adding to my bucketlist
Very cool! I love how rustic every thing looks 🙂
The lost sea adventure would really be a great activity. I love to explore the wonders of the cave.
This sounds like such a great day! I wish this was closer to me, I am going to try and find cool places like this in my area.
I love how rustic this place is. It almost transcends time since it is so true to the past.
What a super cool adventure, looks like you had a great time. I love the photos and Lost Sea? Well those two words alone had me intrigued!
Doesn’t that seem to almost happen, that when you want to go somewhere the weather doesn’t cooperate? I’m glad you were able to visit with your husband and check it off his bucket list. I’ve never been to a cave before and there’s one here that I want to visit. You’ve convinced me that I should go.
That looks like so much fun! I would love to go there with the fam!
The Lost Sea Adventure seems like such a fun place to visit. I’ve always wanted to explore a cave. It seems like so much fun.
I’d love to take a tour there. It’s really cool that you can head down there and feed the fish. It’s crazy that the albino myth lasted so long.
This is so cool! My husband and I love to go on cave tours. We love to find off the beaten path places to visit, and this would be perfect for our next excursion.
Oh my goodness this sounds absolutely amazing – I would love to go on this myself. x
I would love to explore a cave. It sounds like it’s a lot of fun. We don’t really have anything like that near us.
That sounds so cool. There aren’t a lot of caves around here, so I think that would be so cool to explore.