United States Brenda · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 400 m.
The real relief above Craighead Caverns, 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.
400m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
15°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
63m
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 August the afternoon reaches 32 °C at the entrance, 17 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to September.
- 8°-2°Jan
- 10°0°Feb
- 16°4°Mar
- 21°8°Apr
- 25°13°May
- 30°18°Jun
- 31°20°Jul
- 32°19°Aug
- 28°15°Sep
- 22°9°Oct
- 15°3°Nov
- 10°0°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.
Extensive cave system located in Sweetwater, Tennessee
Craighead Caverns is a show cave in United States. The entrance is at 400 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites and several entrances and long galleries. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.Official site↗
- Madisonvillenearest town · 6.4 km in a straight line
- Parking 180 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 50 km in a straight lineCar hire at TYS airport (Knoxville/Maryville)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.
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 kmCraighead Caverns
- 1car parks within 2 km
- 5hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmRodeway Inn, Days Inn, Sweetwater Hotel and 2 more
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites 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).
Towns nearby
- Madisonville6.4 km in a straight line
- Sweetwater7.8 km in a straight line
- Englewood13 km in a straight line
- Athens18 km in a straight line
- Vonore18 km in a straight line
- Tellico Village23 km in a straight line
- Loudon24 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Craighead Caverns.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas2 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 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 21 | 25 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 28 | 22 | 15 | 10 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 10 | 16 | 21 | 25 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 28 | 22 | 15 | 10 |
| Night | -2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 15 | 9 | 3 | 0 |
| Rain (mm) | 114 | 127 | 115 | 123 | 114 | 110 | 137 | 96 | 111 | 88 | 111 | 137 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 19 | 15 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 11 |
| Sun hours/day | 4.3 | 4.3 | 5.6 | 7.4 | 7.9 | 8.5 | 7.9 | 7.7 | 7.2 | 6.4 | 5.5 | 3.9 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 7 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | -2 | 114 | 4.3 |
| Feb | 10 | 10 | 0 | 127 | 4.3 |
| Mar | 16 | 16 | 4 | 115 | 5.6 |
| Apr | 21 | 21 | 8 | 123 | 7.4 |
| May | 25 | 25 | 13 | 114 | 7.9 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 18 | 110 | 8.5 |
| Jul | 31 | 31 | 20 | 137 | 7.9 |
| Aug | 32 | 32 | 19 | 96 | 7.7 |
| Sep | 28 | 28 | 15 | 111 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 22 | 22 | 9 | 88 | 6.4 |
| Nov | 15 | 15 | 3 | 111 | 5.5 |
| Dec | 10 | 10 | 0 | 137 | 3.9 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (400 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 | 154% | 227% | 188% | 166% | 111% | 83% | 62% | 145% | 104% | 168% | 53% | 77% |
| 2021 | 65% | 104% | 238% | 38% | 71% | 105% | 106% | 235% | 88% | 153% | 25% | 83% |
| 2022 | 112% | 181% | 99% | 73% | 80% | 82% | 117% | 103% | 78% | 40% | 112% | 125% |
| 2023 | 140% | 90% | 120% | 74% | 69% | 126% | 119% | 158% | 19% | 11% | 36% | 120% |
| 2024 | 142% | 75% | 109% | 68% | 175% | 37% | 107% | 38% | 138% | 8% | 59% | 75% |
| 2025 | 61% | 98% | 127% | 89% | 198% | 102% | 61% | 97% | 81% | 95% | 64% | 35% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Craighead Caverns
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 400 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Tuckaleechee Caverns
United States · 61 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 372 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Raccoon Mountain Caverns
United States · 106 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 252 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Cumberland Caverns
United States · 114 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 319 mEntrance altitude
- 15 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q5181674) · 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 |
| 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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