America was “discovered” during the era of exploration. Western civilization had become fascinated with finding the last frontier. While the Fourth of July is meant to be a holiday to celebrate our independence as a country it seemed fitting to spend my holiday in one of the last frontiers: A cave. There are few places left on Earth that have not been explored yet. The great underground is one of those few. In the spirit of exploration we cavers seek to find places no one else has ever seen. There is nothing like the rush of seeing a place that may have never been seen by a human before. America was already inhabited when we discovered it, but caves often are completely untouched (especially those that are hypogene in nature).
A neat dissolutional stream “chute” in Marble Cave of Sequoia National Park July 4, 2011
The cave I visited today was a commercial cave and not a new discovery for me, but less than 100 years ago it was a new frontier for someone. Crystal cave was discovered by Alex Medley and Cassius Weber in 1918. Today it is located within the boundaries of Sequoia National Park. Formed in a beautiful gray and white marble it has around 2.5 miles of passage. Since the marble bedding has a high dip angle the cave isn’t extensive laterally.
The marble in a stream bed within Crystal Cave Sequoia National Park July 4, 2011
They have been making a lot of efforts to return Crystal cave to a more natural state. The park has been replacing lighting with new ones that will help prevent the growth of algae and other organisms that are not natural to the cave environment. The tour involves a nice hike down a fair amount of stairs that you will need to climb back up so I don’t recommend it for anyone unable to traverse a significant amount of incline.
Crystal Cave Entrance July 4, 2011
The cave gate is pretty interesting, designed to look like a spider web. The tour will vary depending on the guide you get, but all are interesting. A member of my grotto back home, Chouteau Grotto, was actually working the day I visited although I wasn’t assigned to his tour. Such a small world when you are a caver!
While I had spent the last couple days visiting caves and natural wonders of inland California it was time for me to make like the explorers of the 15th century and head West. Time to head back to the area of my birth and visit some family. I need the three S’s: Sun, Sand and Sea.
Balance is important in your day to day life. One has to enjoy both the warm sunshine and the starry nights to have a complete day. Life is never about choosing left, right or even straight but rather to chose a mix of the three until you find that perfect place.
Today I headed to the interior of California in anticipation of seeing some of the most spectacular helictities in the country. The caves of the state are known to produce some beautiful, delicate speleothems and helictites are one of my favorites to look at (next to cave pearls, of course!). Black Chasm caverns is one of those such caves that anyone can take the time to visit.
Helictites galore in Black Chasm Caverns. July 3rd, 2011.
The helictites are delicate formations that seem to defy gravity, growing every which way unlike their cousins of the cave (stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, etc). How exactly they form is still debated but it is commonly accepted that capillary forces play a big roll in their whimsical development.
Draperies in Black Chasm Caverns. Volcano, California July 3rd, 2011.
The texture of the draperies here in Black Chasm was quite different than the limestone caves I have been used to. The crystal structure almost looked more like aragonite than calcite. I don’t know why yet, but maybe graduate school will enlighten me. 🙂
A close-up of the crystalline structure of the draperies in Black Chasm. July 3rd, 2011.
Located near Volcano, CA this National Natural Landmark is a pretty inexpensive visit. There are plenty of places to camp near-by, or if you chose to do what I did, is a nice wayside visit on your way to King’s Canyon/Sequoia National Parks. It was time for me to head out to see some of the LARGEST trees in the world.
A sequoia in King’s Canyon N.P. July 3rd, 2011
I was able to see many of the famous Sequoia trees, including the General Grant which is the WIDEST sequoia at 40′ diameter, the 3rd largest tree in the WORLD by volume. and is 1700 years old! A humorous sight to see in this part of King’s Canyon N.P. is the Centennial Stump. It is a tree that was cut in 1875, measuring 24′ in diameter, and shipped to Philadelphia’s Centennial Exhibition. No one believed that it truly was one tree and they proclaimed it to be the “California Hoax”. There is one sequoia that fell many years ago and is now an empty shell that you can actually walk through. That’s how BIG these trees are!
Walking through a fallen giant. A sequoia in King’s Canyon N.P. on July 3rd, 2011.
I stayed the night at the John Muir lodge in Grant Grove, and ate at their wonderful full-service restaurant. It was a bit pricey (think $200+ for the night, although it WAS a holiday weekend) but since the campgrounds were first come first serve and all full I was a bit out of luck. Plus, the lodge ended up being well worth it and the nice dinner was a welcome change to my usual camp food.
It’s a bit ironic that I am a caver because I need sunlight like I need water. In a world full of bright, warm sunlight I love exploring the deepest and darkest depths of the Earth. At the same time I love to spend hours basking in the sun, where I feel happy and content with being at peace. I guess that’s my perfect balance. I need the world as a whole, from the deepest, darkest depths to the greatest, brightest heights. I’m going to spend my life experiencing all that the Earth has to offer.
This Grand Adventure is step one for me, what is your step one?
-Nicole
A beautiful vista of King’s Canyon N.P. July 3rd, 2011.A giant sequoia of King’s Canyon N.P. July 3rd, 2011.
Today was going to be a detour from the carefully planned itinerary I had developed for this trip. It has been over 50 days since I started this journey and there is one important thing to understand about road trips: The plan is secondary to the journey. If you take a vacation your agenda should be created as a tool in case you fail to find adventure. Something to guide your trip rather than dictate it. I was now armed with the information of local lava tubes and a magnetic pull towards the famous crater lake. Neither were on my itinerary, but both are certainly part of this journey of a lifetime.
Using the hand drawn map provided to me by the hotel manager I headed along a high desert gravel road towards my first lava tube of the day. Off-roading trails were abundant in this area and I took my fair share of them along the way. In my attempt to avoid people for the day, driving around a truck parked in front of a hill, I managed to put myself on the other side of a makeshift shooting range. The view was beautiful as the wine blew through the dried grass, and the sun was warm and welcoming after spending so many days in the cool northwest. I spent a good amount of time sitting on my Jeep’s hood taking in the sunlight, but the gun fire prompted me to move on. Turns out in avoiding company I had failed to pay attention to the fact they were target shooting and I was on the wrong end of the line of fire. I drove out here to see lava tubes, anyways.
Me in front of Skeleteon Cave June 29, 2011
Boyd cave was the first lava tube I found along the dusty dirt road. The cave, surveyed in 1969, has only 1880 feet worth of passage. The subway tunnel-like passages are pretty typical of a lava tube and Boyd’s was no exception. In contrast to the limestone caves I consider home these were bland and boring. I stopped at Skeleton Cave, another lava tube, but did not go in. It was gated and access is by permit only. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on much.
I mean no offense towards the cavers of the lava tube persuasion, but speleothems are kind of my passion. Not only do the lava tubes I have seen thus far lack any significant decorations (although I hear there are a few lava tubes capped by limestone that do have speleothem development. I have not had the pleasure of visiting these yet) but the passages are too predictable. Caving, for me, is a curious adventure with twists, turns, and a wonderment at the chaotic and complex nature of a cavern’s path. Why water chose to follow one joint instead of another has always been a curiosity of mine. The lava tube is so straight forward that it reminds me of a man made subterranean tunnel, and thus lacks the fantasy of a wild cave.
Entrance to Skeleton Cave, June 29, 2011. Oregon.
The warmth of the high desert plains reminded me it was time to head towards to golden coast. Oregon’s volcanic history sculpted the terrain I was driving through, fields of pumice and lava flows. The northwest is a vulcanologist ideal vacation spot, full of volcanic wonders. There was still another place of interest to visit on today’s impromptu journey: Crater Lake.
I stopped to get gas again and if there is one thing you need to know about journeying through Oregon in your vehicle it is this: You aren’t allowed to pump your own gas. Yesterday I thought the gas station attendant was just being nice, and today I learned it is against the law to pump your own gasoline. Travelers be aware: full service only in Oregon.
The Pumice Desert near Crater Lake in Orgeon. June 29, 2011
On the approach to Crater Lake I drove through the pumice desert. Almost 8000 years ago Mt. Mazama erupted, forming crater lake and this desert of pumice that is nearly 100 feet thick. Vegetation has been slow to return in this area since the lack of nutrients don’t allow for a suitable growing environment. Today the pumice desert was covered lightly in snow, and as I headed up the winding road to the top of Crater lake the snow was even deeper. Throughout this trip I have been reminded that the entire continent received a large amount of winter precipitation, but it never ceased to amaze me how much snow was still here. It is the end of June and as I head up to Crater Lake National Park the RV in front of me is SHORTER than the snow piled along the sides of the plowed road.
Snow pack on road up to Crater Lake June 29, 2011
The weather was misty, and foggy. When I arrived at the top of Crater Lake I could see nothing. The water that everyone claims is so blue and clear, some of the deepest water in the country, was hidden behind the thick blanket of fog. I spent a short period of time there, then retreated back down to a warmer area.
Mt. Thielsen, Lightening Rod of the Cascades June 29, 2011
I drove past the Mt. Thielsen, the lightening rod of the Cascades. This former volcano’s core attracts lighting strikes so often that the rock atop the summit is actually melted. I arrived at my hotel and decided to get some rest. Tomorrow I would be back on the coast, gazing at the beautiful Pacific. While the geologist in me was fascinated with the volcanism of the Cascades nothing could compare with the tranquility brought to me by the crashing waves of the Pacific. Maybe it was because I was born next to this ocean’s breeze, but nothing ever feels more like home.
The foggy view of Crater Lake June 29, 2011.
The tunnel to the bathroom at Crater Lake (meant to keep snow out) June 29, 2011
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, 2011A chipmunk in Custer S.P. June 15, 201129 at an overlook in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011Driving through one of the many tunnels in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011Mt. Rushmore survey marker29 and the bison in Custer S.P. June 15, 2011Washington's face at Mount Rushmore. June 15, 2011Jewel Cave map Part 1Jewel Cave Map Part 2
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, 2011A fossil in Niagara Cave. Harmony, Mn. How many of you can identify it?Speleothems in Niagara Cave. Draperies. Harmony, Mn June 13, 2011
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
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
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, 2011Carbon-covere gypsum crystals in the snowball dining room of Mammoth Cave. June 4, 2011My Mammoth Cave National Park campsite. June 4, 2011
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, 2011Mammoth Cave has been a tourist destination for over a hundred years, this train used to transport guests. June 3, 2011Thai Orchid Cafe in Lexington, KY. I ate there June 2, 2011.
“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, 2011Squire Boone Caverns June 2, 2011Squire Boone Caverns in Indiana. June 2, 2011. Some "squiggly" flowstone. Squire Boone Caverns in Indiana. June 2, 2011The spiral staircase leading down the artificial hole drilled for tourism in Squire Boone Caverns. Today it is also a humidity lock area. June 2, 2011Deposits in Squire Boone Caverns, Indiana, June 2, 2011
