Lehman Caves Virtual Tour

Blase LaSala prepares for the LiDAR and color scanning of part of the Lehman Caves tour route. This 3D scanning resulted in a virtual tour of the cave, available on the Park’s YouTube channel.

NPS / G. Baker

Lehman Caves is one of the premier destinations for visitors within Great Basin National Park in Nevada. The half-mile tour route highlights numerous cave decorations while showing clues to the cave’s origin. During a typical year, over 33,000 people tour the cave.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Lehman Caves closed in March 2020, as the small passages along the tour route do not allow for much social distancing, and airflow is less than in an outdoor environment. Nevertheless, now more people than ever can experience what the tour route is like via the Lehman Caves Virtual Tour.

This tour is a series of videos that was made from LiDAR scanning and photogrammetry done in the cave during two weeks in February 2020. A team from Great Basin National Park, along with assistance from El Malpais National Monument, Zion National Park, and the Geologic Resources Division, helped gather the data. They also consulted with the local Shoshone and Goshute Tribes in developing the script.

The virtual tour contains information not available on regular cave tours, like background information on cave inscriptions, cave biology, and how the cave formed. In addition, the virtual cave tour lights up the cave in a new way, allowing even the most seasoned cave enthusiasts to see something new.

The Lehman Caves Virtual Tour features subtitles in English and Spanish and audio descriptions, making the cave accessible in new ways.