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Guided Hikes at Bat Cave Preserve
Wednesdays & Saturdays
June 7 through August 9, 2008

Field trip to Bat Cave Preserve
Field trip to Bat Cave
© Sadie Adams/TNC

Dates:
Wednesdays and Saturdays only

Time:
10:00 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Hikes take about two hours

Reservations Required in Advance:
Reservations are required in advance to attend a hike. To make a reservation, call The Nature Conservancy’s Mountains Office at (828) 350-1431 and select "Option 4" or email Mtns_Volunteers@tnc.org. Leave your name, phone number, the date and time of the hike you would like to register for, and the number of slots that you would like to reserve. We will send you confirmation of your reservation.

Cost:
The hikes cost $10 per person, $5 for children under 12, and no charge for children being carried. 

How to Prepare for the Hike:
Bring water, good hiking shoes, bug repellent and sunscreen. The trail ranges from moderate to very strenuous and is less than one mile long each way.

Meeting Location:
The Bat Cave Apple House in Bat Cave, NC.

About Bat Cave Preserve:
After hiking up a steep trail through a mature hardwood forest, you will be rewarded with Bat Cave’s
natural air conditioning: a cool moist draft that constantly pours out of vents on the side of the large
cave. Bat Cave is the largest known granite fissure cave in North America. The main chamber is a dark
cathedral more than 300 feet long and approximately 85 feet high. While seeing this impressive cave
opening is the attraction for most visitors, the rugged slopes around Bat Cave contain an equally
important array of habitats and creatures.

Bat Cave is The Nature Conservancy’s centerpiece preserve in Hickory Nut Gorge, a dramatic
landscape cloaked in cove hardwood, Carolina hemlock and chestnut oak forests. The woodlands here
harbor a number of threatened and endangered plants, such as broadleaf coreopsis and Carey’s
saxifrage. Bat Cave Preserve has an abundance of spring wildflowers, including bloodroot, toothwort,
phacelias and many trillium species.

One of the Conservancy’s goals in managing this preserve is to provide suitable habitat for several
species of bat that hibernate in the cave over the winter. The cave itself is closed to visitation at all
times and the preserve is closed from October to mid-April in an effort to allow the bats to hibernate
undisturbed.