About all I remember of the hour long tour of the cave was that it was discovered about 1920, had been used during Prohibition to cook and bootleg moonshine, was privately purchased in 1938 and then opened to the paying public in 1939. It is still privately owned, which is a little surprising to me...I usually think of things like this being owned/operated by the state or federal governments, but at least not in the case.
We had to descend these stairs...you will have to blow up the picture to see it better, but sorta creepy! Especially in that the guide was pointing out the tiny bats along the ceilings and walls that we actually had to duck under to make sure they didn't get in our hair. The sort of gray/silver one in the 3rd pic here is actually an "old bat"...I guess they go gray just like we do, or at least this species of bat does.
The whole tour only took about an hour, so the cave isn't massive by any means, but there really are some pretty incredible and beautiful formations. You really have to click on the pictures and blow them up to see what it looks like better than these small pics...I think you'll like them if you do! I have interspersed some pics of us in here, too...I like pics with people in them the best usually, although I do have to point out that the 3 of us are starting to look as old as some of our surroundings! haha
This very 1st one here looks like massive, prehistoric jellyfish to me. And the pics at the bottom of this grouping show a multi-level pooling of water leading away from the walls...very, very pretty!
The guide was pretty good at pointing out some of these formations and what they look, but he went so fast at times I couldn't keep up. The few I caught are pretty cool...the 1st one here looks like an ice cream cone, followed by grapes.
In this one we have Mary holding the baby Jesus on the left, with the 3 wise men to the right of her, and Joseph above them carrying the lamb. Do you see it? Blow it up and you can see better.
How about a creepy mushroom, growing 20,000 leagues under the sea!? Cool, huh?
And on the left here is an owl, followed by bacon strips!
Well, that was short, but sweet. Cathy and I are hoping to hit the road maybe in mid-February for a short 4 week or so trip to west Texas and east New Mexico maybe, so stay tuned!
The pictures turned out pretty good. However, you can talk for yourself if you think I look as old as the formations in the caves!
ReplyDeleteSome cool pictures!!! What are these formations made of???
ReplyDeleteYes I did the Mary, Joesph and the wise-men, cool!!
And Hallie, you don't look old, but you do look like you have been forced to
go, haha!!!
Don't let Paula put any pressure on you, if you don't want to go just say so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hhahahahahaha
i am having a heart attack just looking at the stairs
DeleteEllen, most of them are called stalagmites and stalagtites (sp?) depending on whether they are growing from the ceiling or the floor, and I know it is a fairly involved process, but they're formed from dripping calcium deposits amongst other things over a period of tens of thousands of years.
DeleteBeautiful. I have missed these adventures!!! The pic of the 3 of you smiling in the close up is my favorite. It looks like Jaaws behind you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was a good picture. We are hoping to head out to west Texas, a town called Fort Davis actually, in a few weeks, and just looked at some pics on a website that made it look pretty interesting. I am hoping to see some good sites there, too, so we may have a few more good blogs coming soon. As I say, "stay tuned!"
DeleteEllen, I said calcium deposits, but I think more like calcite or something!
ReplyDeleteHey Paula,
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures! There is no way in hell that I would do those stairs. Yikes!
haha on the stairs! it was worse coming up (77 stairs) than going down, except for the bats, of course!
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