We literally stumbled onto this amazing national treasure when our first choice of campgrounds (South Llano State Park) was closed to public camping and we kept driving west on I-10 from Junction, Texas.
It was after 3:30 p.m., so I grabbed our atlas and the Woodall’s AAA Official Campground Guide and started looking for potential landing spots within about 50 miles that were not planted immediately next to the Interstate.
I spotted a listing for “Caverns of Sonora RV Park” about eight miles west of Sonora, Texas, and 5-1/2-miles off the Interstate. Most important it was open all year. Perfect. Because it was nearing 4 p.m. I called to confirm they had a site available.
The woman that answered the phone said not to worry about a site and because we might be arriving after the office closed at 5 p.m., just to go ahead and camp then come into the office the following morning. Wow, that’s Texas hospitality for you.
After leaving I-10 and driving down RR 1989 for about five miles, we spotted their sign and took off down a narrower ranch road to arrive at Caverns of Sonora just as dusk was falling. We discovered we were the only RV in the campground and parked in one of about a dozen pull-through sites that can easily accommodate big rigs.
It was in the morning when we went into the office to pay the $20 (includes water and electricity) that we learned about what the founder of the National Speleological Society, Bill Stephenson, refers to as: “The most indescribably beautiful cave in the world, its beauty cannot be exaggerated, not even by a Texan.”
To read more about what to expect at the Caverns of Sonora click here for a post I wrote for RV Short Stops.
Photos: Top: Inside the Caverns of Sonora (Courtesy of National Park Service). Bottom: Our camp site at dusk. Julianne G. Crane
