The temperature is the same 54 degrees it has always been.

The darkness beyond the tour lights is the same absolute darkness.

The cave is the same cave.

The Violet City Lantern Tour offers the experience most directly connected to the ancient miners’ world.

On this tour, visitors carry oil-fueled lanterns rather than using fixed electrical lighting — a partial approximation of what it was like to move through the cave with only handheld light.

The lanterns are not cane torches.