United States Vlad & Marina Butsky · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,036 m.
The real relief above Boyden Cavern, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
1,036m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
15°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
833m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
15 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 15 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 34 °C at the entrance, 19 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to September. The wettest months are from December to March: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 11°1°Jan
- 11°1°Feb
- 14°3°Mar
- 17°6°Apr
- 23°10°May
- 30°15°Jun
- 34°20°Jul
- 34°18°Aug
- 30°15°Sep
- 24°10°Oct
- 17°5°Nov
- 11°1°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in United States of America
Boyden Cavern is a show cave in United States. The entrance is at 1,036 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors. It lies within Giant Sequoia National Monument.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Parking 190 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.9 km from the entrance
- Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 74 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
The Boulder Creek runs highest from February to April.
The Boulder Creek carries about 13 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from February to April, fed by melting snow. It is lowest from July to November.
- 21 m³/sJan
- 27 m³/sFeb
- 29 m³/sMar
- 29 m³/sApr
- 21 m³/sMay
- 8.8 m³/sJun
- 3.3 m³/sJul
- 1.8 m³/sAug
- 1.7 m³/sSep
- 3.5 m³/sOct
- 6.4 m³/sNov
- 18 m³/sDec
From about 1.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 29 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 1,232 km².
The Calaveras River from source to mouth on Riveryas — coming soon
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmBoyden Cavern
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 11car parks within 2 km
- 3information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 8campsites within 8 kmLogger Flat Group Campground, Aspen Hollow Group Campground, Horse Corral Pack Station and 5 more
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
In our other atlases
What else is around Boyden Cavern.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Riveryas2 rivers at the entrance
Lakeyas1 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas7 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 11 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 23 | 30 | 34 | 34 | 30 | 24 | 17 | 11 |
| Afternoon | 11 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 23 | 30 | 34 | 34 | 30 | 24 | 17 | 11 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 110 | 101 | 89 | 58 | 30 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 34 | 56 | 115 |
| Rainy days | 10 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 |
| Sun hours/day | 6.6 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 9.8 | 11.2 | 13.6 | 12.7 | 12.6 | 11.4 | 9.7 | 7.6 | 6.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 35 | 37 | 33 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 21 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 11 | 11 | 1 | 110 | 6.6 |
| Feb | 11 | 11 | 1 | 101 | 7.3 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 3 | 89 | 8.4 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 6 | 58 | 9.8 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 10 | 30 | 11.2 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 15 | 6 | 13.6 |
| Jul | 34 | 34 | 20 | 8 | 12.7 |
| Aug | 34 | 34 | 18 | 5 | 12.6 |
| Sep | 30 | 30 | 15 | 6 | 11.4 |
| Oct | 24 | 24 | 10 | 34 | 9.7 |
| Nov | 17 | 17 | 5 | 56 | 7.6 |
| Dec | 11 | 11 | 1 | 115 | 6.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,036 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 17% | 8% | 95% | 176% | 99% | 33% | 7% | 100% | 5% | 0% | 42% | 40% |
| 2021 | 100% | 26% | 65% | 12% | 7% | 57% | 91% | 17% | 15% | 268% | 25% | 228% |
| 2022 | 1% | 7% | 37% | 48% | 1% | 43% | 35% | 334% | 210% | 1% | 152% | 269% |
| 2023 | 288% | 143% | 391% | 4% | 54% | 233% | 4% | 702% | 165% | 10% | 47% | 33% |
| 2024 | 81% | 200% | 166% | 86% | 64% | 29% | 42% | 23% | 25% | 5% | 182% | 42% |
| 2025 | 11% | 183% | 153% | 43% | 11% | 38% | 23% | 287% | 555% | 164% | 175% | 128% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Boyden Cavern
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,036 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Crystal Cave
United States · 25 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,406 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Moaning Cavern
United States · 202 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 522 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
California Caverns
United States · 215 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 501 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q4952411) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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