5 Best Sights in Howes Cave, Albany and Central New York

At this restored 1816 mill you can take a self-guided tour and watch the 12-foot-round waterwheel power the 1,400-pound millstone.

An elevator takes you down 156 feet to reach these caverns. The 80-minute guided tours lead you along paved walkways and include a ¼-mi boat ride on an underground lake. The temperature down under hovers just above 50°F all year, so dress appropriately. On Friday and Saturday evenings visitors (13 and older) can opt for a lantern-lighted tour; call ahead for a reservation. The grounds include a restaurant and a motel.

Displays of ancient and modern artworks, archaeological relics, and ever-changing cultural exhibits and events celebrate one of the mightiest American Indian confederacies of the Northeast. The museum, which sits on 45 park acres in a building designed to recall a longhouse, includes an area devoted to exhibits for children.

The site contains several 18th- and 19th-century buildings, including the 1772 church that served as a fort during its early years. A log stockade was erected in 1777, and the building came under attack by the British three years later. During the Civil War it was used as an armory. Converted to a museum in 1889, the interior serves as a museum within a museum, with hundreds of artifacts exhibited in cases that have changed little in the past century.

The cave was discovered in 1928 on a farm just outside Cobleskill. An hour-long guided tour takes you 85 feet down, via winding stairs, and features fossils, stalagmites and stalactites, natural domes, and a 100-foot-high waterfall. The cavern temperature is usually 50°F, so dress accordingly.