United States Show cave
Linville Caverns
13 °C inside, all year.
Jan Kronsell · Public domain
The descent
The entrance, at 683 m.
The real relief above Linville 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.
683m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
13°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
539m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
13 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 13 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 29 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to August.
- 6°-4°Jan
- 8°-3°Feb
- 13°1°Mar
- 19°6°Apr
- 23°11°May
- 27°16°Jun
- 29°17°Jul
- 29°17°Aug
- 25°13°Sep
- 19°7°Oct
- 13°1°Nov
- 8°-2°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
Linville Caverns is a show cave in United States. The entrance is at 683 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsHours in OpenStreetMap: Mo-Su 09:00-16:30 · ticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Spruce Pinenearest town · 11 km in a straight line
- Parking 300 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.5 km from the entrance
- Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 75 km in a straight lineCar hire at TRI airport (Blountville)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 kmLinville Caverns
- 5viewpoints within 3 kmBear Den Overlook (MP 323.0), Chestoa View Overlook, Wiseman's View and 2 more
- 8named waterfalls within 4 kmBear Den Falls, Upper Linville Falls, Linville Falls and 5 more
- 5car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 10campsites within 8 kmMountain River Family Campground, Linville Falls Campground, Linville Falls Campground RV Park & Cabins and 7 more
- 10hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLinville Falls Lodge & Cottages, Parkview Lodge & Cabins, Cross Creek Log Cabins and 7 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
- bus stops within 2 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
- Spruce Pine11 km in a straight line
- Newland19 km in a straight line
- Bakersville23 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Linville 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.
Figures 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 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 6 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 8 |
| Night | -4 | -3 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 13 | 7 | 1 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 86 | 84 | 96 | 110 | 118 | 114 | 129 | 120 | 113 | 97 | 94 | 107 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 17 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Sun hours/day | 4.7 | 4.9 | 5.9 | 7.2 | 7.3 | 8.1 | 7.5 | 7.3 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 4.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 10 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 6 | 6 | -4 | 86 | 4.7 |
| Feb | 8 | 8 | -3 | 84 | 4.9 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 1 | 96 | 5.9 |
| Apr | 19 | 19 | 6 | 110 | 7.2 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 11 | 118 | 7.3 |
| Jun | 27 | 27 | 16 | 114 | 8.1 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 17 | 129 | 7.5 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 17 | 120 | 7.3 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 13 | 113 | 6.7 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 7 | 97 | 6.1 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 1 | 94 | 5.8 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | -2 | 107 | 4.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (683 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 | 148% | 244% | 85% | 157% | 177% | 108% | 75% | 200% | 143% | 162% | 129% | 97% |
| 2021 | 96% | 128% | 161% | 40% | 63% | 74% | 96% | 146% | 58% | 122% | 23% | 27% |
| 2022 | 106% | 150% | 110% | 59% | 127% | 35% | 142% | 93% | 119% | 47% | 150% | 85% |
| 2023 | 130% | 108% | 81% | 125% | 72% | 122% | 87% | 123% | 57% | 20% | 40% | 173% |
| 2024 | 211% | 71% | 136% | 66% | 157% | 40% | 114% | 110% | 265% | 8% | 58% | 104% |
| 2025 | 44% | 123% | 59% | 72% | 129% | 96% | 96% | 103% | 69% | 67% | 29% | 49% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q6555113) · 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.






