Public Events
For museums, parks, show caves, cities, and other organizations
Fun, memorable, educational
No matter where you are in the lower 48 states, we’ll bring an incredible experience right to you. Your visitors will experience our mobile cave, vertical caving tower, cave rescue gear, and a host of cool hands-on activities and demos. There’s something exciting for everyone in our programs, and people will remember your event for years to come.
a cave at my event?
How does it work?
Our expert staff bring a 26′ trailer to your site with a fascinating cave inside. Computer scoring makes the cave extra fun – as visitors crawl and climb through the cave, they get a score based on how careful they are to not touch the stalactites. The cave trailer is one of numerous stations – we also set up an impressive vertical caving tower, a cave rescue stretcher, bat biology lessons, and other hands-on activities. Visitors queue in different lines for different activities, and we let you decide whether or not to charge visitors to participate. If you’re aiming for an educational event, we’ll make sure that your visitors learn while having fun.
Who is cavesim for?
Life-changing experiences for all
Our staff are skilled at facilitating inclusive, life-changing experiences for people of many ages and ability levels. Our programs include a wide variety of activities, each designed to make it fun for kids and adults to learn about science, exploration, and conservation.
"Learned so much"
We had a wonderful time at CaveSim and learned so much. Thanks for bringing this wonderful program and your knowledge to Texas!
"happy smiling faces"
As always it has been our pleasure to host CaveSim for the weekend. There were no issues, just happy smiling faces.
"Absolutely enjoyed"
We absolutely enjoyed having CaveSim come out and look forward to the upcoming dates eagerly.
A sampling of past events:
Learn more
Browse the tabs below to get answers to all your questions.
- Museums including the Denver Museum, Perot Museum, The Witte Museum, Science Museum Oklahoma, Tellus, Fernbank Science Center, and more.
- Show caves including a 60-day program at Cave of the Winds, events at Glenwood Caverns, Ruby Falls, Natural Bridge Caverns, and more.
- Zoos including the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
- Government agencies including Mammoth Cave, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Cumberland Gap NHP, Buffalo National River, USFS, CO Parks & Wildlife, and more.
- Military Base Youth Centers including Peterson AFB, USAFA, Ft. Carson, and more.
- Cities including Austin, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Aurora, and more.
- Caving organizations in Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, and elsewhere.
- Over 100 schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools.
- Other groups including fire departments, environmental education groups, local festivals, and more.
Check out our program brochure for more information.
It’s easy to have CaveSim come to your site. Just use the info below to help you pick a good location, and tell us where to set up.
We’ve had as many as 750 participants per day. A more typical number at a public event is 300. We usually run two simultaneous activities with separate lines.
Our programs generally last from one day to several months at one location. For longer engagements, please ask us about leasing a CaveSim system. Our one-day programs typically last at least 4 hours.
We have activities for ages 3 and up. The mobile cave is best for ages 5 and up, but can be explored by children ages 3-4 with an adult or responsible sibling. All participants, regardless of age, must be able to understand and follow the rules.
Yes, adults are encouraged to participate! We have had visitors as tall as 6’6″ and 300 pounds explore the mobile cave. Those who are not comfortable or able to crawl and climb through the mobile cave are welcome to participate in our many other activities.
Visitors can try the vertical caving tower, ride in the cave rescue stretcher, try the cave rescue phones, see demonstrations with a real bat skeleton and real guano, watch geology demos with acid on rocks, enjoy carbide lamp demos with working lights, enjoy the squeezebox, and many other activities.
Yes. We include many activities, and there is something for everyone. While the cave is not wheelchair accessible, numerous children who use wheelchairs have explored CaveSim by getting out of their wheelchairs and crawling through like any other child. Some children may have more difficulty avoiding cave formations, and our only requirement is that each participant understand their goal of not touching the formations (for the safety of the system and visitors). Visitors of any ability level who are unable or unwilling to follow the careful-caving goal will not be allowed to participate.
The mobile cave has 2 emergency access points, plus the entrance and the exit. Visitors are never more than 12.5′ from one of these 4 access points. If someone is uncomfortable in the cave, our staff will let them out. We have multiple night-vision cameras to enable us to check on participants, and participants in all parts of the cave can be heard from the cave entrance.
Yes. If you would like a Certificate of Additionally Insured, please let us know.
Yes, we do have participants (or parents/guardians) sign a waiver.
This depends on your site. Most programs are conducted outdoors because the cave stays inside the trailer, and the tower requires 14′ vertical clearance. In bad weather, quite a few of our activities can be set up inside. We put up tents to shelter cave entrance and the visitors. In very severe weather (heavy rain, high winds), we will close the cave and do all of our activities inside. The cave does have heat and AC. See our setup info sheet for more details.
Yes, it has both.
Usually not, but this depends on how many visitors you expect, and how many CaveSim staff you arrange for us to bring. We do ask your staff to be responsible for providing security, ticket sales and collection (if any), and guest services.
Sí. El inventor de CaveSim habla español. No es fluido en español, pero sabe suficientes palabras para instruir un programa en Español. Y él sabe algunas palabras específicas de las cuevas, por ejemplo “estalactita”, “estalagmita”, y “este es un videojuego, y el objectivo es no tocar las estalactitas o estalagmitas.” Nosotros objetivo es incluir todos los estudiantes, sin importar sus antecedentes.
We only reschedule for inclement weather, natural disasters, or other emergency situations. If you are within 150 miles of our headquarters in Colorado Springs:
- We will reschedule up to 48 hours before the event at no additional cost.
If you are more than one 150 miles from our headquarters:
- We will reschedule up to 10 days before the event at no additional cost.
We will run a modified program at full cost if inclement weather
Click the next tab (“Ask us a question”) and ask away! We’re always here to help.
Book now
Different organizations fund our program using different approaches, so we’ve compiled a list of ideas and resources that we think will be helpful to you.
- Idea: Some organizations get support from local businesses or other organizations that want to show that they’re doing good work in the local community. We include free advertising for your sponsors: we’ll post a sign on the trailer with info about your sponsors, and we’ll keep the sign up for a year as we travel around the country. On the sign, we’ll include any information that the sponsor would like to share, including website and logo. We also get the word out about sponsors via social media and our website.
- Resource: Grants available from other organizations
Create joy. Change the world.
CaveSim turns learning into fun. If your organization wants to make the world a better place by teaching kids about science, exploration, and conservation, CaveSim is the perfect addition to your next event.
Schedule your event
Contact us or fill out the form below to start planning your event. For lower transportation costs, check our calendar to see when we’ll be in your area.