Bat Cave, North Carolina

Bat Cave, North Carolina
Unincorporated community
A fire engine of the Bat Cave fire department
Bat Cave Show map of North Carolina Bat Cave Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 35°27′05″N 82°17′13″W / 35.45139°N 82.28694°W / 35.45139; -82.28694
Country	United States
State	North Carolina
County	Henderson
Named for	A bat cave located on Bluerock Mountain[1]
Elevation	1,480 ft (451 m)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	28710[2]
Area code	828
GNIS feature ID	1018981[3]

Bat Cave is an unincorporated community in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States and is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. Named after a bat cave located on Bluerock Mountain (also known as Bat Cave Mountain), it is the largest known augen gneiss granite fissure cave in North America and is a protected area, not open to the public.^[4] It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names^[5][6] and is also a regular victim of street sign theft, especially in the early 1990s during the popularity of the movie Batman Returns.

The community, located along the banks of the Broad River and within the Hickory Nut Gorge, features several shops, inns and a post office. It is also where three highways merge, U.S. Route 64 (US 64) from Hendersonville, U.S. Route 74A (US 74A) from Asheville, and North Carolina Highway 9 (NC 9) from Black Mountain, becoming Lake Lure Highway; which then continues in a southeasterly direction to Chimney Rock and Lake Lure.