Tuckaleechee Caverns of Townsend, TN. Known as the “Greatest Site Under the Smokies” are the highest rated Cave or Cavern of the Eastern United States.
• Carved inside the earth’s oldest mountain chain and estimated to be between twenty to thirty million years old, the Caverns are rich in history and lore in recent years as well.
• You will find the “Big Room” on one end of the tour that could almost fit a football stadium inside it.
• On the other half of the tour you get to view “Silver Falls. It falls 210 feet from top to bottom and iss the tallest subterranean waterfall in the Eastern US . Millions of formations are viewed along the 1.25 mile round trip adventure.. Tuckaleechee Caverns hosts the most sensitive seismic station on Earth.
• It was originally installed by TVA when they began the construction of the TVA dams to see what the displacement of water would do to the tectonic plates in the area.
• The Cuban missile crisis occurred as the US military was discovering how accurate and precise the station tracks the global tectonic movement all around the Earth.
• The US military began upgrading it from then on to utilize the station to detect nuclear testing across the globe.
• Tuckaleechee Caverns AS107 seismic station is now monitored 24-7 and is transmitted via satellite to the DOD, US military, Geneva Switzerland, Vienna Austria, CTBTO and the Pentagon within 300ths of a millisecond.

Lunch on your own at Apple Valley Café 7138 E. Lamar Alexander Pkwy

• Plan to leave Tellico Village at 9am
• TRANSPORTATION ON YOUR OWN