Explore Coronado Cave, Coronado National Monument, Arizona

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Currently, no permit is needed to enter and explore the cave. Please check in at the visitor center for more information about cave safety, cave preservation, and cave geology and ecology. Coronado Cave became part of Coronado National Memorial in 1978, when the park expanded its boundaries. The cave may have been used by humans as a shelter and hideout by middle archaic people (up to 8000 years ago) and more recently by the Chiricahua Apache and other Apache peoples, Mexican and European miners, and settlers (however, no archaeological evidence remains in the cave today). The cave is now one of the few open, undeveloped caves in southern Arizona. Coronado Cave is a large cavern 600 feet long and in most places about 70 feet wide.To get to the Coronado Cave trailhead drive toward the visitor center on East Montezuma Canyon Rd. Approximately .25 mile west of the visitor center on the north side of the road is the parking area for the trail. It is .5 mile to the cave entrance with an elevation gain of 500 feet. Some light scrambling over slick rocks is required to descend to the cave floor. This hike is rated as moderate to moderately strenuous. Ranger-led Coronado Cave tours leave from the Coronado Cave trailhead, .25 mile west of the visitor center, on Saturdays at 10:00 am from January 28 to April 8. Only 25 people are allowed in the cave at a time. If more than 25 arrive for the cave tour, another cave tour will be arranged to leave at 1:00 pm. Sign in with a ranger at the Coronado Cave trailhead upon arrival starting at 9:40 am.

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