Catherine is taking the picture of us and that's why she's not in the picture also. She was very pleased with herself.
This is the original opening (hole) that they discovered the cave with. It is also the entrance that they used to take people down to explore the cave. There are no natural openings large enough to walk through so they had to create one for tours. This is called a breathing cave and it was discovered when an explorer was hiking around this area and had knelt down and a gush of wind from the ground knocked his hat off. He came back later and crawled down that hole and discovered the cave. You can see the ribbon Catherine is holding is blowing pretty good from the wind coming out of the hole. The ranger said that sometimes the wind is sucking in and sometimes it is blowing out. At first the ranger asked Jonah if he would help him hold the ribbon, which he didn't want to. Then Megan who didn't want to and then Catherine happily volunteered to help.
One of the things that are fairly unique to this cave is the popcorn formations that have developed. There are no stalagtites or stalamites in this cave. It is a realatively dry cave and so any water that is down there sits and forms these popcorn.
They also have these boxwork formations that Jonah kept calling spiderwebs. The ranger said that 95% of all boxwork that has been discovered is in this cave. It is not found in many other caves that have been discovered.
A closer view of the "spiderwebs"
As we first started into the cave, the girls got very nervous. It was dark and there were some very step stairs, about 400 of them all together. They kept saying how they didn't like being in there and wanted to leave. After the walkway straightened out, the girls mothering instinct took over and they took on the job of helping Jonah and making sure he was ok. It was so cute to see and hear them making sure he held onto the rails and wasn't scared. You can see Catherine holding Jonah's hand in this picture.
One of the things that are fairly unique to this cave is the popcorn formations that have developed. There are no stalagtites or stalamites in this cave. It is a realatively dry cave and so any water that is down there sits and forms these popcorn.
They also have these boxwork formations that Jonah kept calling spiderwebs. The ranger said that 95% of all boxwork that has been discovered is in this cave. It is not found in many other caves that have been discovered.
A closer view of the "spiderwebs"
As we first started into the cave, the girls got very nervous. It was dark and there were some very step stairs, about 400 of them all together. They kept saying how they didn't like being in there and wanted to leave. After the walkway straightened out, the girls mothering instinct took over and they took on the job of helping Jonah and making sure he was ok. It was so cute to see and hear them making sure he held onto the rails and wasn't scared. You can see Catherine holding Jonah's hand in this picture.
1 comment:
Wow! You guys have been having lots of fun this summer! We got to see Mt. Rushmore about five years ago, it was really cool! I just wish my boys were older, since it means Perrin was 5 and Owen was 3.
Three cheers for Danny putting the playground together! It looks like lots of fun with the climbing wall!
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