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Day 38: Custer State Park & Jewel Cave, South Dakota

There are some experiences in your lifetime you can only have once- the first experiences. The moment when you realize those little post cards with the turquoise blue water isn’t computer enchanced- it actually exists. Custer, South Dakota is that first point in your travels West along I-90 where you start to see those beautiful mountains and vistas that stretch out so far it feels as if they are fake. It still takes my breath away, but sometimes the more exciting part is seeing someone else experience that first view. The excitement of your friends as they see something amazing they never thought could be real is about the closest you can get to that first experience again.

Custer State Park. June 15, 2011

My friends met me in the early morning, having driven all night to meet up with me in Custer. They had been detoured from the flooding in Iowa/Missouri and arrived there later than they had anticipated (intending to nap for a few hours), but they were still more than ready to explore what the area had to offer. We drove through Custer State Park first, stopping by the needles area to climb atop the rocks and take in the view. On the way through I saw what I had been searching for my entire trip: a bison. It was just casually grazing in a field to the left of our travels, and we all stopped to watch.

A bison in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011

We arrived at the North end of the park and at lunch at a local cafe that offered bison burgers, having been appetized by the live one in the park. We then headed to Mount Rushmore National Monument so we could see four of the great presidents of the past gaze eternally upon the land. It was an amazing feat, the brain child of Robinson, carried out by Borglum and son, that took 14 years to complete to the point it is today.

Mount Rushmore National Monument

After visiting the monument we went to see Jewel Cave, the second longest cave in the world (next to the cave I visited a couple weeks ago, Mammoth Cave). Jewel Cave is a bit different than the typical limestone caves we experience in the midwest. It is relatiely barren of the typical stalactite/stalagmite dripstone deposits, but is completely covered in calcite crystals. It feels like you are walking in a giant geode- And no wonder because the crystals developed in much the same way.

Calcite crystals in Jewel Cave. Custer, SD June 15, 2011

The cave was full of water, supersaturated in minerals, and they began to deposit on all surfaces of the cavern as a blanket. The deeper in the cave you are the thicker the crystals will be- a blanket of crystals that can be many feet thick. This is because as the water level dropped, the higher areas in the cave ceased to deposit while the lower areas had more time (and a more saturated solution) to continue to deposit onto the surfaces.
The cave tour is incredibly informative, and our tour guide happened to be a member of a local grotto. We were able to chat about caving in the area and the differences in midwestern caving versus caving of this area. Apparently they have much more maganese in their caves, their suits often covered black like soot after a caving trip. Our caves of the midwest tend to be wetter, and muddier, most of us coming out covered in clay and mud at the end of a cave trip.

Soda straw (the longest) in Jewel Cave, amongst the calcite crystals

After our tour of Jewel Cave we headed back to Custer, picked up some groceries, and then headed to our campsite near Stockton lake in Custer State Park. The campsite here was well shaded by the lodgepole pines, and also abundant pine needle litter to help start the fire. It was nice to sit around the fire with friends instead of being alone for once. We chatted and enjoyed the warmth while watching youtube videos on the one phone out of the three of us that had service.
Tomorrow we had a long drive ahead of us, but it would be a scenic one as we had a couple places to stop along the way. Yellostone was a good drive away, but it was something we were all looking forward to seeing- and a place where we would be meeting up with more friends to turn our party of three into a party of five.
I was enjoying this trip even more now that I had friends joining me. Part of the wonders of travel is sharing those experiences with others, and the ultimate way to do that is to have them there with you. I can take as many pictures as I want and share them all with you- but know that you can’t truly appreciate the depth and beauty of these places without going there yourself. If you chose to go to some of the places I have shared with you, please return the favor by sharing with me. Nothing makes me happier than hearing, and seeing, the wonderment of those expereincing such beautiful places for the first time.
-Nicole

A sunny day at Custer State Park June 15, 2011
A chipmunk in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011
29 at an overlook in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011
Driving through one of the many tunnels in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011
Mt. Rushmore survey marker
29 and the bison in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011
Washington's face at Mount Rushmore. June 15, 2011
Jewel Cave map Part 1
Jewel Cave Map Part 2
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Day 36: Niagara Cave and Blue Mounds Campground (Minnesota)

Blasting past traditional expectations, there have been many things that have excelled not because they met up with typical standards, but because they found other ways to excell. When Las Vegas was dragging by catering only to the gamblers, they opened their services up to be family friendly. When Dodge fell behind in the sports car market while Ford had it’s Mustang and Chevy had it’s Corvette, they developed the Dodge Stealth, and later the incredibly prestigious Dodge Viper. Midwest airlines (now Frontier airlines) stood out from the pack by offering more comfortable seats and warm chocolate chip cookies. Every successful business evaluates what they have to offer and promotes that aspect. Today I visited two natural resources, each that have successfully used the resources they have to cater to their consumer.
Niagara Cave is located in the Southeast of Minnesota, near a small town called Harmony. It was discovered when a couple pigs went missing through a small sink hole, and was opened for tours later after some cavers negotiated the land use with the farmer. Niagara Cave isn’t highly decorated with speleothems, but it’s very tall, canyon-like passages actually encompass a full 4 geologic formations. Three of them you experience up close on the tour, and a fourth lays at the bottom of a stream at the end of the tour.

A trilobite in Niagara Cave of Harmony, MN. June 13, 2011

The passages can be enormously tall, at one point we were standing 150′ below ground, the cave being a full 110 feet tall (leaving only 40 feet of rock and soil between the passage and the surface). The limestones are full of fossils, ranging from gastropods to cephalapods to sponges and trilobites. Many of them you can see up close on the tour and I was able to get some decent pictures of them.

The tall, canyon-like passageways of Niagara Cave in Harmony, MN

While I prefer to see dense forests of speleothem development in caves, Niagara Cave was a real treat because of it’s tall, narrow passages. They light the areas smartly, showing off the nature of this cave as the passages follow the natural jointing in the limestones. The cave is privately owned, but it is obvious that the owners pride themselves in keeping the tours educational and as accurate as possible. My tour guide was informative, and everyone at the place seemed to know what formations and ages the cave was within off the top of their heads.

Niagara Cave- My tour guide for scale. Harmony, MN June 13, 2011

After my tour of Niagara Cave I decided to head as far West as i could to make my drive shorter. I had picked up a state park guide from the Minnesota welcome center and put my target on Blue Mounds State Park in the Western portion of the state. It had a big buffalo neat to the description, so it seemed like a good place to be. I love those fuzzy bovines.
Blue Mounds State Park turned out to be a real gem. The park has a lot to offer, sitting in the high prairie  with ranged of bison, but probably seemed a little lack luster to the campsites nearby that boast sites like the Badlands, the mountains and other wonders. They have done wonderful things to make the park even more attractive. First, it has many handicap-accessible campsites and bathrooms/showers. The fire pits are in great shape, and every campsite is incredibly clean. The best part, I have to say, is probably the shower house.

Check out the shower- It is even handicap accessible, having two shower heads, one at the height for a wheelchair. Blue Mounds S.P. Minnesota.

Every shower is in it’s own, lockable room- Which is wonderful for someone like me who is traveling alone and has some serious security issues. I hate feeling like some punk kid might be trying to grab my stuff from the bench outside my shower curtain. These showers alleviate this stress. They also have sky lights to cut down on lighting costs, the lights are on a sensor, the shower is a water saver as it is a button that you push that gives you a little over a minute of water at a time, and it is clean and nicely decorated with cedar wood.
I was smart enough to pack up camp before I took my shower, because a severe thunderstorm rolled through the area right as I finished showering. I decided to hang out in my shower room for a while, knowing the camp was near empty and I wouldn’t be inconveniencing anyone, and needing to charge my camera battery and phone in the outlet. The storm was mighty outside, and even made the water in the shower turn on all by itself when it struck something nearby, but the shower room was comfortable.

My shower room at Blue Mounds S.P. I had a toilet, a sink, an outlet, and a shower all to myself in one lockable room. Waiting out the storm.

It was actually hard for me to leave Blue Mounds State Park campground, but today I would be heading to the western limits of South Dakota to Custer State Park, when two friends of mine would be meeting up with me tomorrow morning. Ahh, the big open west where you can see miles of uninterruppted wilderness- and some company to make it even better.
-Nicole

One of the few speleothems in Niagara Cave: A bell. Harmony, MN June 13, 2011
A fossil in Niagara Cave. Harmony, Mn. How many of you can identify it?
Speleothems in Niagara Cave. Draperies. Harmony, Mn June 13, 2011
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Day 35: Cave of the Mounds and Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin

It wasn’t a long drive into Wisconsin, but I could already detect the change in dialect. When I bought my groceries I was no longer offered a “Bag” I was offered a “Beg”, and the word tomorrow had an unusual accent on the second “o” that I wasn’t used to. Yep, I was in dairy land alright.
My first official stop, after buying my groceries for the night, was at Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, WI. A cave that sat beneath a lead prospector’s feet for more than 100 years before the cave was discovered during a blasting in 1939. After almost a year of the family  guarding the new cave entrance by rifle to curiosity seekers, the cave was open to the public in 1940 and has been ever since.

Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. June 12, 2011

It, like it’s neighbor to the East in Iowa (see day 34), is located in the Galena carbonate rock formation. It was mostly formed in a typical carbonic acid/water erosion fashion, but some areas were enlarged with sulphuric acid that bubbled up as the water mixed with the sulphur in the galena (PbS). The speleothem development in Cave of the Mounds is pretty sparse, and it has a lot more of the colored varities than Crystal Lake Cave. In fact, the iron oxide staining in some areas is so prnounced that it looks blood red, as if someone had just maimed themselves on the stalagmite.

Iron Oxide staining on a speleothem in Cave of the Mounds. Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.

Everyone I met at Cave of the Mounds, even though it is privately owned, was very helpful. There were several people on staff that were knowledgeable about the geology of the cave and the surrounding area, and they gave me contact information in case I needed any other information for my personal research project. It was hard to leave the cave, but it was time to head a little further North into Wisconsin to my next campsite: Devil’s Lake State park.

Devil’s Lake S.P. Wisconsin. June 12, 2011

Devil’s Lake State Park is focused around a glacial lake that has no stream inlet to speak of. All of it’s water is either remnant from the last ice age, or a result of precipitation. The lake is beautiful and they have been working hard to restore it after levels of a certain chemical were unsafe and caused “swimmers itch” (something I still don’t quite know much about). It has many, many campsites and if you get into the Ice Age campground you have wooded lots that are fairly private.

Devil’s Lake State Park of Wisconsin

I enjoyed some cheese curds, cooked up a stir fry, and drank a local brew called “The Spotted Cow” next to my toasty camp fire. Although I was alone at the campsite, I certainly wasn’t lonely. There was a caterpillar that seemed fixated on crawling on me, as I would throw it into the woods only to have it return half an hour later. Ok,.. who am I kidding, I was a little lonely.

The Caterpillar of Devil’s Lake S.P. June 12, 2011

Honestly, camping alone is pretty tough….I enjoy it from time to time, but after a while it can wear on you. I am very excited that my friends will be joining my in South Dakota, more friends joining me in Yellowstone, and another friend in Glacier. I just hope I haven’t grown so accustomed to being alone that I am a terrible host!
Tomorrow I head on to Minnesota, where I will tour yet another cave and experience another unique camp site. I’m slowly getting closer to the big, openness of the West and I can’t wait. Nothing feels more like home…
-Nicole

The very original gate for Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin.
Devil’s Lake S.P.:The concession sits on pillars into the lake, giving you a great view as you eat your meal.
Devil’s Lake State Park June 2011
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Day 34: Crystal Lake Cave in Dubuque, IA

I had spent all of Yesterday (the official Day 34) driving so that I could get to Dubuque, IA to see Crystal Lake Cave. By the time I had arrived it was too late to tour the cave, and I was too exhausted to set up camp for the night, so I camped at a Econolodge in Dubuque. It was the last room available, as it turns out I showed up on the weekend of some sort of biking festival. Pure luck that someone had canceled their reservation is what secured my room at the Econolodge, one of the budget options for the Choice hotel chain that claimed to be smoke-free but smelled of stale cigarettes. Not my favorite hotel, but I was too tired to care at the moment.

Crystal Lake Cave map. The red outlines the tour route. June 12, 2011

Dubuque, Iowa is a river town, situated along the Missouri river as a major port for trade. Between the lead mines (you can visit the old spanish mines in the area) and the major river for transport, Dubuque flourished and looks to be a nice city. It has plenty to do in the area and I’m surprised I had never really heard of it until I started planning my trip…perhaps it’s because I struggle in properly pronouncing it’s name.

Crystal Lake Cave Dubuque, IA June 12, 2011

Crystal Lake Cave is just outside of Dubuque, Ia and was discovered by lead miners who had decided they wanted to find their own mine instead of work in someone elses. They found a cave when they began to drill in 1868. It was opened to tourists in the 1930s. It resides in the Galena Limestone layer, with another layer of Limestone above it, the Maquoketa. Underneath is the Decora LS/Shale formation, and below that the St. Peter Sandstone that we are familiar with back in Missouri.

A very pure speleothem (calcite) A Soda straw in Crystal Lake Cave. June 12, 2011

The cave, when it was original before the miners began exploiting it’s resources, was very small- probably only a few feet tall. It would have been a nice, long, (strenuous) belly crawl over flow stone in it’s previous, unaltered state. The miners enlarged the walking paths so that they could stand up and roll carts thorough the tunnels, so the lower half of your tour route was artificially carved out.

Notice the original height of the cave, and the people walking below it through the tunnel created by miners. June 12, 2011

The top half is incredibly rich in speleothem decoration, and most of them are a pure white indicating no traces of iron or manganese have seeped through to discolor them. One of the most amazing things about this cave is that they have anthodites, and quite a few of them. The cave is privately owned, and depending on who gives the tour you might get a different story. Each person has picked up on different bits of information and added their own flare to the tour. If you are the average tourist that just happened to bump into a cave to waste some time, this is fun. If you are a serious caver or geologist, it can be a little funny to listen and censor it in your head.

This isn’t to say it isn’t a good tour- every place has to cater to the audience and do what works for them. These sorts of privately owned caves are businesses, and whatever drives tourism is what needs to be done to keep the cave open. There is a delicate balance that is needed in any sort of natural resource for the public to enjoy and understand. Every National Park and State Park knows this, and they sacrafice small portions of the prized resource so that people can enjoy it while camping, in hopes that they will become educated and inspired to continue to protect it with their tax dollars for years to come.

You know how the saying goes that you have to spend money to make money? Well, you have to let some of these places go to the wayside of conservation to save the rest of it. It’s a fact of business: If people don’t know about it, they won’t want to pay for it.

It’s time for me to head to another cave that has been opened to the public, this time in Wisconsin. I’ll see you there soon.

-Nicole

Soda straws, very white, in Crystal Lake Cave. June 12, 2011
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Day 27: Mammoth Cave National Park, The Grand Avenue Tour

The damp, earthy smell. The cool, slow moving air. The lights struggling, and failing, to reach into all corners of this limestone underworld. Caves are familiar territory, it feels like home. The tour guide giving the stereotypical “Do Not Touch” speech, the explanation of the twilight zone, a touch rock to “get it out of your system”, and the story of how the cave was discovered. All of these things are in a cave tour, uniting all the caves into a broad category. One of my favorite parts is when the tour guide shows all the visitors what the “Natural Cave Light” looks like, when people gaspy and children hold on tightly to their parents.
To the untrained eye, all caves are the same. They are all damp, dark environments that descend into the Earth’s depths. Of course they all have similarities, they are all called caves for a reason, but every cave is different. They have different levels of speleothem development, different types of passages, different types of limestone or dolomite, and more. Even within the same cave there can be several different broad categories of passageway, and Mammoth Cave is a great example of this.
Mammoth Cave’s passages can be divided into three main types: The large, oval shaped passages developed in the phreatic zone, the large, more angular passages developed in the vadose zone, and the tall, canyon-like passages developed during times of fast-flowing water, often confined by natural jointing in the limestone. On the Grand Avenue tour of the Mammoth Cave you get to see all three.

Gypsum flowers in Mammoth Cave, in one of the vadose-zone developed passages. June 4, 2011

One thing I had read about, and have studied pictures and specimens of, but never seen in person were gypsum flowers. These crystals “grew” abundantly in the passages that develop in the phreatic zone (The phreatic zone is termed the “unsaturated” zone, the area of the cave that was developed with some airspace still present. These passages tend to have rougher edges, since the water cut downwards as it flowed through these passages). Gypsum crystals, and their more ornate, developed flowers, form best in dry areas of the cave. The passages formed in the phreatic are usually perfect for this, since the water has, over time, found a new passageway deep beneath this one and left it “high and dry”. The crystals grow relatively fast (geologically speaking), as I saw many instances where someone had carved their name into the cave ceiling and the crystals have begun to grow in these cracks, the former graffiti artist’s name forever in the cave as the crystals adorn the scrawl.

Gypsum crystals depositing in the crevices of someone's name. June 4, 2011 in Mammoth Cave.

The snowball dining room in Mammoth Cave actually has a cafeteria, where people are encouraged to buy (overpriced) lunches to fuel them for the rest of the journey. The snowball dining room is so named because it has gypsum growing in “balls” on the ceilings and walls, making it look like someone has thrown snowballs around in the room. The bathrooms in here use artificial walls, but a natural cave ceiling that just happened to be the perfect height tops off the room.

The bathrooms, deep within the cave, in the snowball dining room of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.

The next area you will travel through on the Grand Avenue tour are narrow, tall, winding passages that make you feel like you are wandering around the bottom of a steep canyon. The area, much like the rest of Mammoth Cave, doesn’t have a whole lot of speleothem development. It does have a few areas where water is flowing, and a deposit called Martha’s Vineyard, and a few stalactities and flowstone. For the most part, this area is dry.

Martha's Vineyard in Mammoth Cave. June 4, 2011

After the canyon-like passages you will entire an area that is very similar to the Mammoth Passages tour: The big, rounded, open passageways that were formed in the phreatic zone (the phreatic zone is that which is completely underwater, and the passageways indicate this by the way they are rounded, oval shaped- showing that the entire passageway was smoothed by water erosion from top to bottom).
At the very end of the 4.5 hour tour, which gives you a very good workout as you climb up and down hundreds of stairs and steep hills, you enter one of the areas that is rare in the Mammoth Cave system: The well-developed speleothems. This area of the cave is located against a valley, where the sandstone cap is no longer present since it was taken away by erosion. This allows more water to percolate through the limestone, saturated with dissolved calcite, and redepositing on the ceilings, walls and floors.

Mammoth Cave Speleothems on the Grand Avenue tour. June 4, 2011

The Mammoth Cave Grand Avenue tour ends by exiting through a revolving door, used to help preserve the high humidity that is present in this last portion of the cave. While you have just spent 4.5 hours underground, it is hard to believe you have only seen a very small percentage of the cave. There are hundreds of miles of passageway closed to the public, and perhaps even more miles that have yet to be discovered.

The revolving humidity lock door at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. June 4, 2011

Caves are the ultimate “last frontier”, one of the few places on Earth that have yet to be discovered in whole. Each one of these is unique, and you never know what you are going to discover. I intend to collect as much cave experience as possible, which means checking on cave off my list at a time. Everytime I enter a cave I learn something new about them, see something I have never seen specifically before. The subtle differences are beginning to be more stark to my ever-training eye. I can’t wait to see more.
Tomorrow I head back home for a few days, then I will be heading on my Western loop. I can’t wait to see what the caves of the West have to offer me. I have been to 8 caves thus far on this trip…and I have many more planned, and probably many more unplanned, to visit.
Stay tuned!
Nicole

Stylolites in the phreatic-developed passageway. Mammoth Cave, Kentucky June 4, 2011
Carbon-covere gypsum crystals in the snowball dining room of Mammoth Cave. June 4, 2011
My Mammoth Cave National Park campsite. June 4, 2011
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Day 26: University of Kentucky and Mammoth Cave National Park’s Mammoth Passages Tour

All over the world children watch their Disney movies and visions of theme parks dance in their heads. Bicyclers dream of the Tour de France, gamblers dream of Las Vegas, and mountain climbers dream of Mount Everest. Mammoth Cave of Kentucky is a lot like the Disney World of the caver. The longest cave in the world, and numerous books and stories of the exploration of the never-ending Mammoth Caverns has kept many cavers dreaming of the underworld.
Today I awoke in Lexington, Kentucky to tour the University of Kentucky, my 3rd stop in my list of potential graduate schools to visit. The University is conveniently located in the midst of Kentucky karst, the library (which holds the record for the largest book endowment of all public universities in the nation) even sits atop two sinkholes which required special foundation design so that it could achieve the feat. The U of K seems to be the perfect size: being both large enough to offer ample facilities (and has a growing geology department), yet small enough that the graduate program still affords a family-like atmosphere. Everyone was friendly, and caving is a serious sport in the area.

The University of Kentucky. June 3, 2011

I ate dinner the night before at Thai Orchid Cafe, where I enjoyed some very yummy peanut chicken. I chose the restaurant because of it’s decoration: orchids galore. It made me feel a little homesick for my own orchids that I have left in the care of my loving sister back home in Missouri. I enjoyed lunch today with some of the geology graduate students where I was able to get a true sense of what the campus was like, and tips on what to look for when seeking a graduate school. I love this opportunity because it gives me the chance to find out what graduate students wish they knew before they entered graduate school and gives me a lot to think about. All in all, I loved the University of Kentucky. Even the quirky robots that make deliveries in the medical building, where the cafeteria is located.

The Univerisity of Kentucky delivery robot. June 3, 2011

After my pleasant visit with the University of Kentucky I headed towards my theme park: The Mammoth Cave National Park. It was a palatable drive from Lexington, and has some great camping facilities (even if you do have to use those silly little tokens to take a shower, each token costs about $2.50 and lasts 10 minutes). The camp store is well stocked, both with products and helpful staff, and located a short walk from the camp. Everything is located within a short walk from the campsite. In fact, once I parked my Jeep at the campsite when I arrived, it didn’t move until two days later when I left the area.

The Mammoth Cave National Park camp store's new sign. June 3, 2011

Arriving later in the afternoon, I had time to take a shorter tour and, planning on taking the long tour the next day that encompassed almost every other tour (exempting the Wild cave tour) I was left with the Mammoth Passages tour. The tour enters through a natural entrance (a short walk from the visitor center, which for me included an encounter with a 2′ copperhead that decided to wander into the trail. The guide expertly kept the snake to the side with his hat after I pointed the snake out, and had everyone walk around before allowing the snake to continue across the walking path).

Looking back out the natural entrance of Mammoth Passages tour at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. June 3, 2011

The Mammoth Passages tour shows you what a majority of the longest cave in the world looks like: Huge, oval shaped passages with no speleothem development. The caves were named for this feature, having passages of an abnormally large size. While the cave is lacking in speleothem development, it makes up for in size many times over. It was used, as many caves are, by the natives between 4000 and 2000 years ago, when they left moccasins and other indications of human activity. Later the cave was used as a Salt-Petre mine during the war of 1812, over 400,000 lbs of calcium nitrate being extracted from the cave. After the war it had many uses such as a tuberculosis quarantine area, a church, a mushroom farm, and of course tourism, of which it is still used for today.

Moccasins in the Mammoth Passages tour of Mammoth Cave. Kentucky, June 3, 2011

I found the tour guide, as with most of the National Park run caves, to be very informative and fairly accurate in their description of the geology and the history. The kind of tour I appreciate, not only for my own knowledge, but for the education of the general public who are often mislead by private cave tour guides who are encouraged to elaborate upon their stories. My guide today was wonderful, a man who only works during the summer as he is retired.

The black cherry preserves and biscuits at Mammoth Cave Hotel Restaurant. June 3, 2011

Afterward I enjoyed a fried chicken dinner (it seemed appropriate for Kentucky) at the Mammoth Cave Hotel Restaurant, which included biscuits with black cherry preserves. Everything was wonderful, the biscuits with preserves so exceptionally good that I could have made a meal out of them alone. The prices weren’t bad either, comparable to your local Applebees price point. The campsite was large and amenable, and everyone I met on staff was helpful and friendly.

Shower tokens at Mammoth Cave N.P. June 3, 2011

Tomorrow I will be spending more time in my “Disney Land”. While I do prefer to focus on speleothem development and this cave has very little it is certainly a big playground for the caver side of me. Besides, it is important to understand what features cause a cavern to lack speleothem development to further the understanding of what causes speleothem density in other caverns.
Tomorrow I will be hiking for 4.5 hours, underground, on the Grand Avenue tour that takes me through 4 miles of underground bliss, and shows me the three different “faces” that Mammoth Cave has to offer. I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow.
Until then-
Nicole

Mammoth Passages tour entrance. Mammoth Cave N.P. June 3, 2011
Mammoth Cave has been a tourist destination for over a hundred years, this train used to transport guests. June 3, 2011
Thai Orchid Cafe in Lexington, KY. I ate there June 2, 2011.
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Day 25: Squire Boone Caverns (Mauckport, IN) and Rising Park (Lancaster, OH)

“We’re only human”
Such a funny statement. So many of us struggle to attain near-perfection. We want to be the best at what we do, have the greatest impact, and show that we are above the animal that we once were. Being human means we feel the need to try harder than any other creature. Like we have some sort of hierarchical need to take care of everyone, and everything, around us. We view ourselves as superior, the keepers of the planet. So why is it that when we make mistakes we make that claim: “We’re only human”.
The society we have today, the way we view ourselves as the superior animal, isn’t something that you can define. Our ideals of this being is fluid, and we often make mistakes in the past. It is a lack of knowledge, or sometimes simple ignorance, that causes us to make these mistakes. We can often find mistakes we have made in nature, causing a ripple effect that will take a millenia to still in the waters of our environment. Today I experienced two examples of these, and also a prime of example of what makes us humans so superior. It isn’t because of what we are- it is because we are constantly evolving at a rate much faster than any other member of the animal kingdom.

The view from the sandstone bluffs of Rising Park. June 2, 2011

This morning my friend decided to take me to Rising Park in Lancaster, Ohio before I continued my journey westward. The park was the gift of a self-made successful business man, Philip Rising, and his wife when they donated the land to the city in 1908. It contains the sandstone bluffs, known as Mount Pleasant today, but known as Standing Stone by early natives. The park contains a lake, many picnic shelters, and a nice hiking trail that leads to the top of the sandstone bluff, which affords a great view of the entire city and the lands of Ohio beyond.

A human-numb deer in Rising Park of Lancaster, OH. June 2, 2011

While hiking there a deer walked out in front of us, barely 20 feet away, clearly unafraid of humans. While this land, prior to the park’s development, had probably been a place of wilderness, today people and animals have meshed together a little too closely. It is unfortunate that animals in such situations become so dangerously used to people at the cost of our development. The park is beautiful and was meant to give us a closer view of nature, but you can never experience nature when you pave the walkways and put down solid stone benches. In changing the landscape for the average person to experience the outdoors you create a world that is a sort of hybrid- a place where deer don’t run and sandstone cliffs are marred from railings.

One of the Benches chisled of rock for Rising Park in Lancaster, OH. June 2, 2011

This isn’t to say that the park isn’t beneficial: It offers a great place for people to get outdoors and enjoy some healthy activities. It is just an example of how humans as a population can change the world so easily. We have made ourselves the architects of the earth, and we have remodeled the world to fit our needs.

A picnic shelter in Rising Park in Lancaster, OH. June 2, 2011

One of the prime examples of unintentional human tampering with nature exists in commercial caves. In the early times of cave tourism we did things unthinkable today: We touched, we broke, we threw coins in pools of water. These are the more obvious calamities, something that we quickly realized was detrimental as we watched the cave slowly lose it’s grandeur. Some of the less obvious effect we have on commercial caves: Loss of humidity due to artificial openings, moss and mold growth due to artificial lights, and a raise in the temperature simply by touring the caverns.
Squire Boone Caverns is a prime example of how humanity has evolved, from a time where the cave was slowly being destroyed to a time where the cave is starting to restore itself. We have evolved our role on the earth to a conscious effort to not only halt the impact we have, but reverse it. It is remarkable to see changes take place in an area that takes geologic time to develop.
Located in near Maukport, IN, Squire Boone Caverns is a beautiful cave on land that was once owned by Daniel Boone’s brother, Squire. It was discovered when they were hiding from indians in the late 1700’s, and Squire Boone still rests within the caverns after his death in 1815. The property also contains a grist mill and many shops selling handmade products such as soaps, baked goods and candles.

Squire Boone Caverns. June 2, 2011

Squire Boone caverns is blessed with a caver as a maintenance man, and he has prided himself in the last 8 years with restoring the cave to it’s original glory. He has installed humidity lock doors, has rewired all the lighting so that it is turned off after each tour goes through, and makes a concentrated effort to remove all moss and other bacteria that have been introduced into the cave as a result of careless tourism.

The largest growing rimstone dams, in Squire Boone Cavers, Indiana. June 2, 2011

Although we should, as humans, feel the need to care and restore all natural gems of the underworld, Squire Boone Caverns contains a particularly beautiful cave deposit that is well worth our attention in protecting. It contains the largest, still growing rimstone dam in the country. The speleothem deveopment is fairly advanced, and many of them that show past stress from loss of humidity (and thus loss of deposition) are showing a renewed water flow that should, over hundereds of years, begin the cave’s sculpture building again.
Humanity is an idea that has constantly been evolving. We once viewed ourselves as the owners of the Earth, and it was our job to conquer and dominate everything it had to offer. Luckily, the gift of being human is also to acknowledge mistakes. Many of us are beginning to realize our skills are better used to be caretakers of the Earth, here to reduce the impact that other, less educated members of our society provide.
We have all made mistakes, but the part that makes us who we are is the fact that we can recognize those and correct them in the future. We may have almost destroyed some things, and fully destroyed others, but we can fix that. After all, “We’re only human”.

The lake at Rising Park in Lancaster, OH. June 2, 2011
Squire Boone Caverns June 2, 2011
Squire Boone Caverns in Indiana. June 2, 2011. Some "squiggly" flowstone.
Squire Boone Caverns in Indiana. June 2, 2011
The spiral staircase leading down the artificial hole drilled for tourism in Squire Boone Caverns. Today it is also a humidity lock area. June 2, 2011
Deposits in Squire Boone Caverns, Indiana, June 2, 2011
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Day 23: Coral Caverns & Shawnee State Park, Pennsylvania

Tucked away in rural Pennsylvania sits a small cave waiting to be explored, off the beaten path  in the bank of the small mountains of Manns Choice, PA. The cavern is a bit difficult to find and is a fairly small opertion, but what you will find in the cave is a geologist’s candy. It is probably hinted at in the name of the cave, Coral Caverns, but what you will find inside are clear examples of a stromatolite coral reef from the days of the Devonian.

Stromatolite in Coral Caverns, Manns Choice PA, May 31, 2011

Coral Caverns is a privately owned cave. Small and quaint, what it lacks in the generic souvenir and touristy type shop it makes up for with an enthusastic cave owner who shows the cave with pride. Coral Caverns has been in operatiohn since 1932, a small cave discovered by accident when a quarry found the opening in 1928. The limestone is vertically bedded here, and the inside of the cave has some very well preserved stromatoporoid reefs, along with a moderate display of speleothems.

Coral Caverns May 31, 2011

The visitor center has several interpretative displays that can help teach about fossils and other cave life, especially helpful for kids who are thirsting for knowledge. The caverns are open on the weekends for the public to tour, so try to plan accordingly, although if you are organizing a group I am sure a quick call to the owner could arrange a tour time that is conveinent.

Coral Caverns, Manns Choice, PA May 31, 2011

Very near the cave is a wonderful state park that has camping amenities, Shawnee State Park . The campgrounds are large and beautiful, offering access to a large lake where you can canoe, fish or swim. The views are beautiful, as you can gaze across the lake towards the appalachian mountains in the distance.

Shawnee State Park Pennsylvania May 31, 2011

I could go on and on about how beautiful Coral Caverns was, or about the scenery of Shawnee State Park, but I think this is one of those times where the pictures should do the talking. Enjoy!

Coral Caverns in Manns Choice, PA. May 31, 2011
Coral Caverns in Manns Choice, PA. May 31, 2011
Looking up in a Coral Caverns Chimney in PA. May 31, 2011
Coral caverns May31, 2011
Hey geology buffs, can you determine tops? Pen for scale. Coral Caverns, May 31, 2011
The lanterns lining the entrance of Coral Caverns in Manns Choice, PA. May 31, 2011
Looking up in Coral Caverns. PA, May 31, 2011
The baby robin, newly hatched, in front of Coral Caverns. May 31, 2011
Shawnee State Park, Pennsylvania. You can rent boats for the lake. May 31,2011
Shawnee State Park Pennsylvania. May 31, 2011
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Day 22: Niagara Falls, Ontario

Blue. It’s a color that many of us love. To those who know me, it is almost more of an obsession. How many of you have heard me make remarks about that beautiful shade of cerulean blue? Or watch me eat my blue M&Ms last so that I can enjoy looking at them the longest? Are you one of the dozens of people who have remarked to me how often I wear the color?
The color is something that evokes an emotion in me. The emotion produced by looking at the color is what I crave. Blue is a peaceful color, something tranquil and relaxing. It makes you feel as if you are laying in the sahde on a cool, tropical beach. The same feeling of love that many of us are struck with as we gave upon a waterfall, negative ions swirling in the misty air. The color blue and Niagara Falls have something in common: They create a calm, tranquil, loving environment for us to bathe in, truly soaking in all the goodness of life.

Niagara Falls- Horseshow Falls from the top. May 30, 2011

Niagara Falls actually consists of two falls, the American Falls state-side, and Horseshoe falls on the Canadian side. Located on it’s namesake river, more than 4 million cubic feet of water per minute crashing to the bottom of the falls. The area I was closer to, staying on the Canadian side, was the 173 foot tall Horseshoe Falls. It was during high flow season, and the rate had increased to around 6 million cubic feet of water per minute and the mist was thick. I couldn’t get a clear picture of the falls at all.

One of the tourist attractions, Maid of the Mist, where you can get in a boat and get soaking wet as it chugs it's way as close to the falls as it can. May 30, 2011

The geology of the falls is something temporary, and in the terms of geologic time, very short lived. It is currently eroding the top layer of limestone/dolostone at a rate of ONE FOOT per year! It is a remarkable rate that puts the Niagara Falls extinction at only 50,000 years from today. Only 11,000 years ago the falls were located about 7 miles to the North of it’s present location, but the water tapped into a portion of non-resistant soils and rock, causing it to retreat quickly (in days or hours, even!), forming the “Whirlpool” you can visit downstream today.

The Niagara Falls "whirlpool"...I don't think you get the scale, let me post another picture.
So, here it is zoomed in a bit. Do you see the people down there yet? No? Ok...let's zoom in again (Click on photos to see in original size)
Zoomed in as much as I can with my stock lens. Yes, there are people down there. They are just TINY!~

Today Niagara Falls is a HUGE tourist destination, and as such the prices of dining and tourism have risen dramatically. Parking is a full $20 (although they like to note that you can “come and leave all you want…for this day only…ha ha.), the tours are short and cost betwee 15 and 20 dollars, and the food is slightly pricier than normal restaurant prices. I decided that I didn’t feel like getting wet as I was already feeling a little cool because of the mist, so I decided to watch “Niagara’s Fury- A 4D experience”. It only lasted a little over 20 minutes, and although the “4D” effects of a moving floor, snowfall and water spray were interesting, it wasn’t informative enough nor impressive enough  to be deserving of the $17.36 I had to pay.

I would say that you can certainaly make your Niagara Falls trip less expensive if you have more time to see everything. If you bike or hike from a nearby campsite or inexpensive hotel to the Falls you save $20, and there are several inexpensive grocery stores nearby (I went to a local grocery called “No Frills” and I was able to purchase two lunches and two dinners, with drinks, for under $12).

A Niagara Falls rainbow. May 30, 2011

The water wasn’t only at it’s high point while I was there- it was overunning the place. I was the only person crazy enough at my KOA campsite to *attempt* to sleep in a tent. I arrived at my campsite the evening before to a muddy mess, but managed to find a damp spot that my tent would have been ok on- If a severe thunderstorm hadn’t decided to roll through. The entire campsite turned into a wetland, and I had to evacuate my $9.98 tent to my Jeep. I paid for two nights worth of camping to sleep in my Jeep, but hey, this trip isn’t always going to be perfect. It’s an adventure. The storm may have been strong, but I do enjoy a good thunder and lightening show.

The mud of my campsite. At least my Jeep enjoyed it. May 30, 2011 at Niagara Falls, ON, Canada KOA campground.

This wasn’t the first time my tent was in a severe thunderstorm. It has survived many nights and days in such storms, but it was the first time it leaked. I am more than happy with my tent’s performance, considering I bought it for $9.98 from my local Wal-Mart. I don’t think any tent could have survived while pitched in the middle of a mini lake.

The Niagara Falls color-changing night lightshow. May 30, 2011

At night Niagara Falls comes alive with a light show. This time of year (late spring to early summer) the mist is more dense because of the increased water flow so the show isn’t as pretty as it could be (although still enjoyable). If you want the full effect of the Niagara Falls experience I highly recommend coming in late summer or early fall.

The lights of the night at Niagara Falls. May 30, 2011
The Niagara Falls nightly firework show. May 30, 2011

I spent my night at the Falls watching the colored lights pour over the misty water of Niagara Falls, watching the people dancing in the grass to the live band, until the end of the firework show they put on everynight. It was a soothing night, listening to the falling water and feeling that cool mist breeze through the air. A refresher before another long day in my Jeep tomorrow as I drove back into the states to see another cave.

A Blue Niagara Falls. May 30, 2011

In case you were wondering, yes, as the lights changed there were times when the falls were all blue. In some cases, it even qualified as a shade of cerulean.
I’ll see everyone again when I report back state-side. Until then…
-Nicole

"Don't Jump In" is what the sign is telling you.....believe it or not, people actually do go over the Falls in barrels...even with the high fine for the violation. May 30, 2011
Horseshoe Falls- The water is just about to give in to gravity. May 30, 2011 in Niagara Falls, ON.
Yes, there are rainbows at Niagara Falls too! May 30, 2011
Standing in front of Niagara Falls, the American Falls in the background, in Canada. May 30, 2011
The night lights of Niagara Falls. May 30, 2011
Niagara's night lights. May 30, 2011
Live band and dancing audience at Niagara Falls. May 30, 2011
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Day 20: Ontario, Canada-Bonnechere Caves

When you are truly passionate about something people take notice. Everyone that you know, and some you don’t, supply you with more information about the subject of your heart and the knowledge and experience simply snowballs. A wonderful effect of passion, because each day brings something new. In planning my trip I decided a visit to my friends in Canada was a must on my schedule. Shortly after organizing the dates my friends told me of a place to visit that I simply couldn’t refuse. Nestled in the Ottawa Valley of Ontario laid in wait something I had yet to experience: My first Canadian cave.

The "Canadian Passport" mark. (lol)
Renfrew, Ontario's Historic Swinging Bridge (Restored in 1983). May 28, 2011

Canada is a whole new animal for me, and this was my first visit. I was very excited about earning another stamp in my passport, but was disappointed to find that they don’t stamp it when you are crossing via vehicle. The universe didn’t seem to think that was vefry fitting for my picture-taking, thoroughly documenting ways of travel and I heard a loud shot as something hit my windshield only a few miles past the border. Something had slammed into my windshield (that I just recently replaced this year, I might add) creating a rather remarkable shape: A double “C” on the passenger side. My Jeep had, rather unfortunately, been branded with my trip to Canada.

Odi's King Burgers in Renfrew, Ontario. May 28, 2011
Poutine and a cheeseburger from Odi's in Renfrew, Ontario. May 28, 2011

All four of us (or rather 3 and a half since one was an adorable 2 year old) then headed into town where I was to partake of some local cusine before we headed to the caves. We dined at Odi’s King Burger in Renfrew, enjoying some Poutine. Poutine is a french dish, consisting of french fries covered in gravy and cheese. If you ask me, I think it was like a fried version of mashed potatoes and gravy. Delicious.

The Bonnechere Caves of Ontario, Canada. May 28, 2011
The Bonnechere Caves. May 28, 2011 in Ontario.

Bonnechere Cave is located north of Algonquin park and is located in fossil-abundant Ordovician limestone. The cave consists of passages, with no large rooms to speak of, and has very little ornamentation. I would place the very sparse speleothem development at less than 1%. This is quite obviously due to the nature of the cave since it has been mostly filled with rushing water in recent geologic times. The limestone of the cave may be older than some, but the constant rushing water that filled the caverns did not allow redeposition to occur in any large manner. The cave passageways are incredibly interesting. They very methodically follow prominant jointing in the cave’s home formation. It seems to be located all within the same formation, the limestone being all of the same type, but I have yet to complete the research to know which limestone this is.

The roaring waters of Bonnechere River in Ontario. May 28, 2011

The Bonnechere river roars past the cave and into one of the natural entrances carved by melting glacial waters. The entrance is best viewed from the other side of the river, where you can stand on the remnants of an old bridge. The water was pretty high today, this area of Canada suffering from the same high waters that much of America is suffering from this Spring.

Teh Bonnechere River, and it's namesake Cave's entrance. May 28, 2011 in Ontario.

My visit to this area of Canada was fantastic, especially since I was able to spend it with such wonderful and accomodating friends. Spending time with them and their son reminded me again how precious spending time with friends can be. I loved every minute of it, and it even made me think a second about having kids of my own. The passion of cave geology calls, however….someday in the distant future I suppose. For right now I have many great friends with cute kids to play with and enjoy (then send them back to their parents when they get grumpy! Ha ha!~)
Tomorrow I was to head off on my own again. I was going to miss spending time with my friends, but I had something pretty majestic to ease the pain: Niagara Falls. I’ll see you there, if I survive the barrel drop (j/k).
-Nicole

The Bonnechere River, rushing past the wild, abundantly blooming lilac bushes of Ontario. May 28, 2011
Some of the proliferous fossils that adorn Bonnechere Caves in Ontario. May 28, 2011
Could it be...cephalapoda? Why are you in the Bonnechere Caves? Oh...it's Ordovician? Of course you would hang out here. May 28, 2011
Some of the very sparse speleothem development present in Bonnechere. I have seen these many times, and I have named them "lizard backs". May 28, 2011 Ontario, Canada.
Emerging from the Bonnechere Caves to the trail. May 28, 2011 Ontario