The Crystal Caves in Atherton are an excellent place to take your budding geologists to! Here you’ll find amazing crystals, precious stones and fossils. It’s a man made cave and is actually more like a museum with interesting pieces dating back millions of years.
The largest amethyst crystal in the world can be seen here; the spectacular 3.5metre tall ‘Empress of Uraguay’ (pictured below), as well as a beautiful and rare ancient Chinese carving from the Qing Dynasty carved from solid lapis lazuli. They also boast an excellent collection of dinosaur fossils.
The entrance to the caves is the gift shop, ‘Fascinating Facets’ an interesting place to explore in its own right, where you can find an assortment of items including jewelry, sapphires, aquamarine, amethyst, opal and other crystals and precious stones. You can also ‘crack your own geode’ - these are ordinary looking rocks which when split in half reveal the beautiful crystals hidden inside.
Everyone is kitted out with a miner’s helmet, a map of the caves and a guide sheet with information about each exhibit before you begin your self-guided tour. As it’s an artificial cave there are no unexpected surprises such as bats, snakes or other cave dwelling creatures and the interior lighting ensures no-one will be scared of the dark here either!
The exhibits are mounted into the walls and ceiling and my kids enjoyed using their ‘headlights’ to find the hidden treasures throughout each of the corridors. There is a series of different themed rooms as well where exhibits are presented in glass display cabinets or as freestanding pieces which you are welcome to touch.
I went along not really sure of what to expect and was very impressed by the sheer size and diversity of the collection. There were crystals, stones and fossils from all over the world. We really learnt a lot about the different types of crystals and how they were formed, I’d never realized there were so many types.
My eldest son who is 8 got the most out of the visit, that’s him in the picture above working on the quiz sheet, my younger two who are 4 and 6 really enjoyed wearing the helmet and exploring the caves but were probably a bit too young too really understand or appreciate as much as older children would.
This post is part of a collection of wonderful travel photos featured at Delicious Baby, please click the link to see more great family travel pictures from around the world. A big thank you to Debbie at DeliciousBaby.com for organising this.
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Tags: Atherton, Cairns Highlands, crystal caves, crystals