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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 37: The transition into the West: A Long Drive through South Dakota

My drive across South Dakota was going to be a long one. I had not particular plans for today other than find a campsite that was within cell range so that my two friends that were to meet me there early tomorrow would be able to reach me. (I ended up staying in a hotel because my lovely cell phone company didn’t have service at any of the camps) I was heading west on I-90 and before I even hit the South Dakota state line I saw them: The Wall Drug bill boards.
Anyone who has driven through South Dakota is familiar with the barrage of billboards listing what Wall Drug has to offer. If you have driven through South Dakota and haven’t seen them, I strongly advise you to contact both your eyecare professional and your psychiatrist about some sort of disorder. They are literally everywhere, probably at least one every half mile. There is even one billboard that tells you about a Wall Drug billboard located in Africa….Really?
It’s actually quite a good advertising scheme. They adverstise so many different items that you start thinking it might be a good place to get your supplies. I mean, they have almost everything according to the bill boards that one by one list off the products Wall Drug has in store. It worked for me…I stopped by to get some dinner supplies only to find they didn’t really have groceries. I actually managed to find my way out of the labyrinth that is Wall Drug without spending a penny.

The prarie of South Dakota along I-90. June 14, 2011

Between bill boards you have a beautiful inspiring landscape. As far as the eye can see is nothing but big, open prarie with rolling hills that slowly transition into the bad lands, the black hills and the mountains. It is a gorgeous view and one of those constant reminders how much I love being in the West. The East is great to visit, and they have a lot to offer both culturally and naturally, but the only place you can find this much land untouched is in the West.

South Dakota along I-90.

The West was the last frontier of the United States, and because of this large portions of land were able to be stowed away without settlement. The first National Park and the first National Monument (both I will visit in the next few days) were both in the west. The National and State parks of this area are world-renowned for unique beauty and inspirational vistas that can be seen nowhere else. The landscapes are as gorgeous as they are varied, the west claiming tall, young mountains that are still growing, and older ranges that have begun to erode. A beautiful coastline that ranges from rocky points to sandy sun-bathed beaches lines the Pacific coast. The praries can be vast and flat as can be, and turn into rolling hills and rising plateaus. There are the lush rainforests in the West so filled to the brim with plants and animals it appears as an alien planet, as well as dry deserts home to very few animals or plants.

The mountains here are tall enough in places to have snow and ice year round, and even hosts some of the remaining glaciers of the continental U.S.
The West has always been more of who I am. It is the place where I can take a deep breath and feel….free. For the next month and a half…I was home.
-Nicole

A dragonfly on the prarie in South Dakota. June 14, 2011
A storm rolling in at my hotel in Custer, SD. June 14, 2011
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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 33: Chicago- The City/Rural contrast

To many of us that live in more rural areas, cities look like they epitomize the opportunity for individuality. In small towns you can’t get away with brightly colored hair, dressing up on any day other than Sunday (unless a special occasion permits) or being loud and outspoken without feeling ostracized. In a big city people are not only permitted to do this in abudance, they can actually do so without criticism. There are simply so many people from so many different walks of life that no one has time to care, nor a right to judge.


Today I headed to one of those cities: Chicago. It isn’t the first big city I’ve been to. I visit Baltimore on occasion to see my cousin, and we also go to Washington D.C. I’ve been to Miami, I was born in the L.A. area and have been back many times to visit family, and Kansas City is a short drive away. Chicago wasn’t my first big city, but it was about to inspire a change in perception of big city living.

The view from the top of my friend's apartment building in Chicago. June 10, 2011

The drive to the city wasn’t too long, and I was lucky to have the company of my friend (who invited me to shoot off the cannon a few days prior) that had a conference to attend in Chicago starting the same day I would be arriving. 380 miles into the 475 mile drive we stopped at a gas station to fill up, both my Jeep and ourselves, and something very familiar was adorning the merchendise racks. The university I attend is fairly small, but nearly 400 miles away we found a pocket of university t-shirts, hats and other apparell. As I paid for my beverages I asked the cashier why he had this particular school’s items for sale, and he said a lot of people from around here go to that school. I would never have thought…
Driving in Chicago is something else. The GPS is all but worthless with streets being so close together, or often stacked on top of eachother, and the tall sky scrapers blocking the satellite signal. Parking is limited, and expensive. Before dropping my friend off near her conference location we decided to visit the towerplace mall. Parking was more expensive than what money we spend in the mall itself.

The "L", the best way to get around in Chicago. June 10, 2011

Then it was time for me to find my recently-Chicagan friend’s apartment. Parking overnight here would cost $25, and finding the place itself was a bit of an adventure. My GPS would think I was on a street one over than I was actually on, would lose signal often, and tell me to turn left where there was no road because it thought I was on the bottom road, not the top, of a layered street. I was incredibly thankful once I found the parking garage…even if it set off an annoying alarm when I pulled in.

Chicago June 10, 2011

Another friend of mine, who moved to the Chicago area several years ago, met up with us at my new Chicagan friend’s apartment and we headed out to explore the city. We visited Millenium Park, looked down at Grand Avenue from the top of his building, enjoyed gourmet popcorn, and then took the L to China town where we ate authentic Chinese food. The L was certainly the way to get around in Chicago. No stress of figuring out where to turn next, no parking fees, and best of all you can actually drink what you want to enjoy without having to worry about a D.D.

In front of the Art museum in Millenium Park, Chicago, June 10 2011

As I wandered the streets of Chicago with my friends I realized something. The people of the city aren’t necessarily free to be who they want, they are trying to express themselves since they can’t accomplish it in other ways. One of the biggest pieces of who I am, the vehicles I own and enjoy to drive, are things that many Chicagans simply can’t enjoy. It’s too expensive to drive, or for that matter park, anywhere. Gas is more expensive, apartments soar into the sky with little room for parking, and streets are crowded making travel inconvienent.

An alley in Chicago. June 10, 2011

The bold hair colors and wild clothes aren’t necessarily what these people want to portray, it’s just the only way to stand out in a crowd of thousands. How can anyone express their individuality in a sea of so many people? The subtleties are lost. Cities aren’t places where you are free to be yourself: They are places where you have to be loud for anyone to recognize who you are. While in small town culture you have to have subtle differences since everyone is so notieable, in a city you have to swing in the opposite direction, playing up every quality you want to be noticed.
Neither city nor rural area are above each other. I used to think that since I liked to dress up often, and since I had my own style, I would fit in better in city living. I have now discovered this isn’t true- driving is such an intergral part of my being that I would never be able to be myself in such a place. I had spent so much of my life, as many of us do, looking at the greener grass in the neighbors pasture. Suddenly I knew that I like right where I am. Life is good, and while I still plan on moving around to wherever my job takes me, I can be happy no matter where I am. The goal isn’t to dress down, or dress up, for anyone. I just do what I like, regardless what others think, and there is no place that can make you feel comfortable in that.
The thing in charge of your happiness is you.
-Nicole

The elusive elevator button I kept trying to get a clear pic of. Chicago, June 10 2011
The stage in Millenium Park, Chicago. June 10, 2011
Millenium Park, Chicago. The big videos of faces will spit water out at you. June 10, 2011
Art in Millenium Park. Chicago June 10, 2011
"The L" of Chicago. June 10, 2011
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Day 29: Signs and Oil Changes

Now that I was back at home, it was time to change the oil. I am picky about what kind of oil I use, and I only use Castrol oil. I suppose everyone has their preference, but Castrol seems to be the best quality oil for the money that you can get. In the past, when changing the oil in my Dodge Stealth long before I owned my Jeep, I could note a marked difference in the way my car ran when I used anything less (for example, Pennzoil) than Castrol. Since then I have stuck with it…and since most oil change places use Pennzoil standard I have a hard time breaking down and letting someone else change my oil. I want to know exactly what goes into my vehicle…and honestly, it’s best for you to know how to do minor things to your vehicle on your own. With my Jeep, I have no excuse not to change my own oil- I don’t even have to drive up on ramps. I just crawl under the vehicle (something any caver has no problem accomplishing) and drain the oil, take off the oil filter, replace the plug and new oil filter, and refill the oil. It honestly takes less than 10 minutes once you have the process down.
Driving was something that provided me with freedom when I first turned 16. I lived in the country, miles from the nearest town, so driving was a way for me to start seeing the world. I have loved cars, and driving, ever since. It’s probably why I can handle being on the road for so many hours. I have had many of my friends, after driving for a short trip, comment on how insane I must be to drive so far, and for so long, this summer.
I’ll admit that driving for long distances can get tiring, even though I enjoy doing so. As a matter of safety I find things to keep myself actively engaged in driving (I advise this to anyone that is getting ready to drive long distances). One of my vises, among many, is to take note of signs that I consider unusual, or out of my oridinary routine. Here’s a collection of some of the signs I have seen thus far on the trip.
Each of them is foreign to me, but they might be domestic to you. Eventually I will have enough signs in my collection that very few will surprise me anymore. Here’s to the next sign that will tell us what to do….or in some cases, what to ignore!

-Nicole

Lousiana. For the Love of All that is Holy, Please, don't feed your children to the alligator.
Alabama- Little known fact: Dunes are more than sand, they are held together by plants with long roots, such as the sea oat.
South Carolina- I'm not sure if this is religious paraphenalia (probably) or a joke about being in the middle of no where. I don't believe it's possible to be lost, though... You can always find your way by retracing your steps.
South Carolina- This sign seems fairly straight forward...but what is hiding beneath the glare reveals an unfortunate, but necessary, truth (see the next picture)
Yes, No Fun Allowed...Live Free or Die, I agree...yet for a majority of the population playing on the rocks is deadly sicne they don't have the physical experience to navigate safely, and conservationally.
This sign isn't uncommon. In fact, it's universal. I have yet to drive through a single state that didn't have at least one of these.....
Massachusetts- Hair Pin curve. Straight out of the movies....or sports care commercial
New York-Bear Xing. The first of it's kind that I have taken note of.
Niagara Falls, Ontario-I would say they added the image to reiterate how dangerous the waterfall is incase the reader didn't understand English......but I'm seriously wondering how many people out there would not understand how dangerous this is.
Columbus, OH- I am seriously doubting whether this is an informative sign...or a warning. No one messes with the Mob...
Ohio- Basically, only bring yourself. In fact, you may need to leave your clothes behind... ha ha!
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Day 28: Driving Home to MO for a few days

It’s hard to believe that today marks the end of the 4th week on the road. I’ve been to 24 states so far, covered over 7000 miles, and I’ve been to 8 caves in various area of the country. Each place had it’s own flavor, and since I pride myself in trying new things everywhere I go I have been able to enjoy something unique.
Driving home today is going to be a bit of a treat. I would say I am going to spend these few days relaxing, but the truth is I have a lot of things to catch up on, clean, and friends who have some amazing plans to keep me busy this week. While being on the road is great, and I pride myself in enjoying my time alone, loneliness does eventually start to creep up on me. After a month of being in strange places it will feel nice to be in familiar territory.
Following is a collection of different food and drink items I have tried throughout my trip thus far. Feel free to ask about any of them, or give your own input. I love hearing from my readers!
I’ll see you here tomorrow and the next few days, when I will be sharing some of the awesome things my home state of Missouri has to offer.
Enjoy!
Nicole

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale In Lexington, KY
Ale81. Tastes similar to ginger ale. Lexington, KY.
Ski. From Kentucky. Citrus soda, a lot like Squirt, minus the bite of grapefruit.
Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not from the colonel, but probably better....especially when served with black cherry preserves & biscuits.
Thai Orchid Cafe's Peanut chicken. Their own recipe...and tasty! Lexington, KY.
Dos Equis. Not unique, I drink it all the time...probably because I'm trying to be the "Most Interesting (Wo)Man in the World". (I had this in Arkansas with my friend, her husband, and neighbors)
Mint Juleps at Oak Alley. Something everyone has to try once. Louisiana.
Fried catfish and crawfish, creole style. Louisiana.
Abita restoration ale- helping restore New Orleans.
Beignets from Cafe Du Monde. If you go to NOLA without having an order of these, you fail. It's tradition.
Crawfish tails and veggies, cooked at camp in Alabama.
Datz. A Tampa, Florida cafe with GIANT coffee drinks. Dime for size reference.
Fresh made chocolates from St. Augustine, Florida's Whetstone Chocolates
Pecan-encrusted fresh fish. Savannah, GA. Mmmm
The Savannah Bee Company. I'm sure many of you have been to a wine tasting....how about a honey tasting? I have.
First-of-Season Georgia peaches. You can only get these in GA at local fruit stands.
A heritage tomatoe. Purchased in Virginia, originating from a hot house in Canada. Hmmm...
Dominion Root beer. Viriginia. Made wit real honey...and real tasty!
Peanut Butter Confetti Cookies. You can only get these if you know my friend...she makes lots of cookies, and delicious cookies.
Creme Brulee from Pier 77 in Maine.
You can't say you've had lobster until you've had lobster in Maine. For me this is true because this is the first time I've ever had lobster.
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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.