Interested in checking out the beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations in the Southeast's caverns and "show" caves? Here are nine located in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

The Lost Sea

SWEETWATER, TENN.

This underground body of water between Knoxville and Chattanooga is not technically a "sea." It's a 4 1/2 acre lake, and the 75-minute guided tour includes a ride in a glass bottom boat. You walk half a mile from the entrance to the 800-by-225-foot lake room; along the way, you pass the famous Council Room, where a range of Indian artifacts have been found, including pottery, arrowheads, weapons and jewelry. Parts of the cave were mined for bat droppings used to make saltpeter (an ingredient of gun powder). In 1939, bones of a jaguar from 20,000 years ago were found in the cavern. Today, those bones are on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Overnight tour/camping packages are available; call for details.

Get there: 6 hours, 45 minutes. Take Interstate 40 west to Asheville, then Interstate 75 (at Knoxville, Tenn.); take I-75 south to Tenn. 68 (at Sweetwater, Tenn.); take Tenn. 68 north (Lost Sea Pike) to Lost Sea Road.

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; longer hours March-October.

Admission: $13.95; $4 for ages 5-12; 4 and younger, free. Group rates.

Details: (423) 337-6616; www.thelostsea.com.

Forbidden Caverns

SEVIERVILLE, TENN.

Despite the name, you can explore this natural underground complex by driving 5 1/2 hours west.

Years ago, Indians lived in the caverns and used flint found inside to make arrowheads, knives and scrapers. During Prohibition (and until 1943), the caverns were used for moonshining. The not-too-obvious source of water (the underground lake beneath English Mountain) and the isolation of the site made it ideal for making illegal beverages.

It became a tourist attraction in the 1960s. The temperature is always 58 degrees. Popular stops on the one-hour walking tour include Rock Candy Mountain, a popular stalactite formation. You'll see calcite formations that are still growing, and a wall of "cave onyx" -- calcium carbonate -- that the cavern proprietors say is the largest such wall in existence.

Get there: 5 hours, 30 minutes. Take I-40 west to Asheville, then U.S. 411/Tenn. 35. Turn left on Blowing Cave Road.

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, April-November.

Admission: $12; children $6. Group rates.

Details: (865) 453-5972; www.forbiddencavern.com.

Boone's Cave Park

LEXINGTON

Proof that Daniel Boone once lived in the area is scarce, but legend has it that the 16-year-old frontiersman and his family settled in Davidson County in 1750. Boone supposedly hid from Indians in a cave on the Yadkin River on grounds near his home. Another story is that his family lived in this particular cave their first year in the area.

The cave goes back 80 feet and sits in a 110-acre park near the community of Churchland. The main room, right inside the entrance, has a 5 1/2-foot ceiling and measures about 10 by 15 feet; two smaller rooms are farther in. Get a taste for Boone's and early settlers' lifestyles by seeing an exhibit, "A Delicious County: Yadkin Valley, 1670-1770," at the Davidson County Historical Museum, in Lexington (about a 20-minute drive from the park). The exhibit includes info on the cave; it continues through June.

Get there: 3 hours. Take I-40 west to I-85 south just beyond the Yadkin River. Take N.C. 150 north to Boone's Cave Road, turn left.

Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; open until 8 p.m. May-September.

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