A Bear in the Caves

Where to start?  Yesterday was amazing, and we didn't want to leave.  Seriously, Clare and Robin even looked into what their cancellation fee would be on tonight's KOA so we could all stay there an extra night and see even more of the caves.  Sadly, we were passed the point of getting anything back, so we will just have to go back another time.

Our first cave tour wasn't actually in Mammoth Cave National Park, but in one of the many caves outside the park, owned and operated privately.  Apparently there are caves everywhere here, and in the 1920s there was quite the Cave Wars.  I will spare you all the history that Clare so desperately wants to type out, and just tell you that it still goes on today just much less so.

Our host at the Rock Cabin's had strongly recommended Crystal Onyx Cave, so that is where we headed.  On the way, there were many signs for Onyx Cave (in the same colours and type font).  When we got there, and attempted to pay, the price was not what we were expecting (quite a bit less).  Only then did we realize we were not at the more popular cave, and we actually did make our apologies and left.

Crystal Onyx Cave was amazing.  Our tour guide was part of the family that bought the land (and therefore caves) about 10 years ago.  They've only been open a bit over a year and they are making a good name for themselves.  The tour was an hour and was really well done.  There was a neat combination of history of the land and the caves, as well as the work that they went to restore the stairways and railings inside the cave so it would be safe for tourists again.

wedding cake

We also learned some of the basic formation names within the caves, AND how to remember them (ie: stalactite are the formations dropping from the ceiling becuase you would hold "tight" too if you were dangling from the ceiling, stalagmite are the formations that "might" reach up and touch the stalactites, and when they do they are "mighty tight" and make columns).

By far though, my favourite part of the tour was all the creative images found within the walls, formations and shadows of the caves.  We saw a troll, eagle, wedding cake, alligator, snapping turtle, and the above picture is a T-Rex, mouth open, teeth bared, and little arms out (it doesn't look as real in the photo as it did when we were standing there... you'll just have to go see it for yourself I guess).

I wish I had room for more photos, but you get the idea.

The rest of our afternoon was spent doing some weird "bucket list" that we found in a brochure for Cave City.  The city is at exit 53 off the interstate, so they had a "53 things to do at exit 53".  We knew we didn't have time to do them all in a couple of hours, but we gave it a good shot.  We found the wigwams, the big foot statue, 100 birdhouses place and so on.

Finally it was time to head back into Mammoth Cave NP for our Star Chamber tour.  This was a stark contrast to the first tour, and not because it was a lantern tour (ie all the electric lights were off in the caves).  We had two rangers as guides, and about 50 people on the tour (our Crystal Onyx Cave tour had a whopping 6 people).  Oh, and for scale, their basic day tours in the park had 100 people per tour!  At first I couldn't figure out how this was even possible given what I'd experienced as a cave earlier in the day.  No way could 50 people stay together!  Then we went down into the cave...

Mammoth is an understatement!  When they said a big cave, I assumed it was about how long the tunnels are.  There are over 400 miles of connected tunnel right now, and they are still mapping out new areas all the time.  What I wasn't expecting was how massive the inside was.  I think you could drive a train through most of the areas we went.  As we got further in, it got small enough that maybe you could only drive a van through it.  Yeah, still huge.  We had a 2.5 hour tour and we only saw a fraction of the caves.  There are 27 entrances to this cave system, and the park runs about 8 different tours to see different areas of it.  Only one tour used the lanterns instead of electric light, and while I was glad we thought ahead and bought tickets a few days ago to get on this tour, I also wished we could have seen more of this cave all lit up (thus our discussion on staying an extra day).

The history of the cave system and the park is amazing.  The first tours were as early as 1816, and there are lots of fun stories about how guides made money (before the national park service took it over and made rules).  They used candles on sticks for guests to pay to write their names on the ceiling like graffiti.  They figure there are thousands of names inscribed up there.  What got me was how neatly they were printed, like someone had used a template.

My favourite part of this tour, however, wasn't exactly about the caves (or more, I don't remember why it had anything to do with caves lol).  Our Guide asked us all if we knew about the war of 1812.  Most people nodded.  He then asked if we all knew who they were fighting.  Clare and Robin both said "we did", and we were near enough to the front that he heard us.  He shook his head and said "well it was actually our friends to the north," to which Clare replied "We're Canadian."  A number of people burst out laughing, including our guide, who added "I should have seen that one coming.I won't ask who won"  I still don't remember why he was telling us about the 1812, and I don't really care.

We didn't get back to our little cabin until after 10, so it was pretty much bedtime.  This morning we packed up early and headed to one last gift shop (yeah, its not even worth commenting on any more) and then headed for the highway.  Our GPS told us it was 6.5 hours to the KOA in Cleveland, Ohio, but two major cities with construction through their core (and one during rush hour), and another time zone change, and we didn't pull into our home for the night until 8:30!  Long day.

Tomorrow is our last day on the road.  We have one more park to visit, which includes a train ride I'm told, and then we head back across the border and on to home.  Depending how late it is, I might not convince Clare to write my final entry until sometime on Saturday.  I promise I will nag her until she writes it though.

Whatever!