Singing Hills RV Park, Cave City, Kentucky
All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. ~ Proverbs 16:2
After all our years in this world, you’d think by now we’d expect the unexpected, but we’re still surprised and awed by the things God chooses to reveal to us! All the multitude of things He’s created that we’ve encountered all our lives! And all so He can reveal Himself to us, as well as for our pleasure!
Today’s reminder of the presence of God began on our drive into Mammoth Cave National Park about 9:00 this morning.
The road through the Park to the Visitor Center is about four miles long, and we weren’t too far along when we kept noticing all this white stuff along the side of the road. At first, we thought – trash? It kinda looked like Styrofoam cups. Lots of Styrofoam cups. (Did you know that’s a brand name? My laptop insisted on capitalizing it. 😊) Anyway, eventually, Blaine found a place to pull off the road so we could check it out.
What we discovered was truly miraculous! And according to our tour guide with 10 years’ experience (because the younger Rangers in the Visitor Center didn’t know anything except the name), they’re not very common.
So what is it?
Frost Flowers!! And they are amazing to see up close! According to Ranger Eric, it only happens when conditions are just right, and only to this particular plant that’s growing alongside the road. The stem is filled with moisture and when conditions are exactly right, the moisture inside freezes and the stem breaks apart, releasing the moisture inside. As the moisture is released, it freezes, forming – – – Frost Flowers! Just look at these pictures!! Astounding!
As we walked to our meeting place for today’s tour, we noticed there were a whole lot more people on a Saturday, than we had on week days! Our tour, which has a limit of 114, was sold out. There were three buses waiting to drive us 10-minutes to the start of our tour. A large group of Amish where on our tour as well – maybe two dozen? They stayed in the back for most of the tour.
And the guy in the red coat and the woman in royal blue?
They’re from Canada. : )
Today’s tour is called the Domes & Dripstones. This is the description they gave us: This classic tour visits areas of Mammoth Cave that have been used for nearly 100 years. This tour begins in a sinkhole, passes through huge domes, amazing breakdown, and ends in the dripstone section known as Frozen Niagara. Please note that this tour ascends and descends hundreds of stairs and several steep inclines, which can be difficult for many visitors, as there are no alternative routes. Focusing on the natural formation of the cave, this tour is ideal for people interested in science and wanting to see stalactites and stalagmites. This tour includes the entire Frozen Niagara Tour route and a small portion of the Grand Avenue Tour route.
It’s supposed to last two hours, but you only walk ¾ of a mile. There are 500 stairsteps, which includes the 280 on the initial descent and has an elevation change of 250-feet. And remember – – cave + darkness = not so great pictures sometimes. 😊
We ended up near the front of the large group, which was a good thing, because once we stopped, it took about 10 minutes for the last of the group to join us and during the wait time, Eric regaled us with information, told great stories and corny jokes, and answered questions – – hence the Frost Flower information. 😊 Once he told us about the ‘flowers’, the people around us were asking if we had pictures. One asked to take a picture of the picture on my phone. 😊
Another bit of information? It took two years to build the steps we walked down. I’m not sure if they began in 1984, or if they were finished in 1984, but regardless, it cost about $3,000 per step! It took the Park Service a long time to find a contractor who could remove the old ones and build new ones without blasting, or otherwise causing damage to the cave. The company who got the contract had built submarine steps, so they were used to working in tight spaces without damaging the ‘host’.
This is looking behind us.
Darker than you can imagine!
And deathly quiet, since no one moved, coughed or hardly breathed when Eric requested it.
Not even the kids with us made a peep! Pretty erie!!
And so the tour continued.
And ended at the Frozen Niagara cave area and an area they call ‘The Drapery Room’. If you want, you can take a tour just to these parts only. It’s sort of designed for people who can’t do all those steps for one reason or another.
What a magical room! And I looked for facts and figures about the size, but found nothing, except to remind you how long it takes for these things to grow (an average rate of .0051 inches per year, taking 196 years to grow 1”!), so our pictures will have to do. Come and see for yourself! But we’re going out on a limb and guessing the Frozen Niagara part is 50’ tall. That means, it’s about 117, 600 years old! At least, that’s what Siri tells me. She did the math. Of course, if you’re a Christian who believes that the earth is only about 6,000 years old, I guess you’d have to figure that it grew really fast at first. I have no answer for that. Sorry!
Compare it to the one Blaine took! : )
Compare it to the one Blaine took. : )
And that’s Frozen Niagara in the center.
See anything in the picture that makes you go, Hmmmm . . . ?
How about that man-made support beam?
But then again, it was pretty dark everywhere. . .
Of course, we were on a trail with handrails to keep us from clambering where we shouldn’t, but still . . .
Namely, to keep people out, but the why? We don’t know.
because we no longer have a guide leading the way!
They’re not as big as they look, its the shadows that double their size. : )
Maybe it’s the shadows, but they looked more like spiders than crickets to me. . .
Once we returned from our tour, it was time for lunch, and then a scenic drive through the Park with a couple of stops on the way, and what ended up being a long hike to the Onyx Cave.
Thanks for joining us Rich and Martha!
We didn’t bring water, but I had several Tic Tacs tucked away in my pocket. : )
During the summer months, they give tours in this cave. I guess there aren’t enough people visiting the Park to make this worthwhile for them during the other seasons. Since we couldn’t go inside, I was able to locate pictures on-line. Now we can all pretend we were there!
That’s kind of a high step to get in the door, don’t you think?
Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem like it’s been used for quite a while.
Oh. There was a door with steps around back. : )
Dissolving bags of salt – – like softener salt!
There are over 40 of them scattered throughout the Park.
Blaine says, broken heart syndrome . . .
There were at least two windows broken out, and a host of other rennovations that need to be done.
Don’t think we’ve ever seen that at an old church before. : )
You used to put your boat on those wooden rails to get into the water.
But along the way, we still wanted to stop at the Sand Cave Trail. It’s a short walk, so we wanted to check it out. It ended up being a rather sad walk. A walk that led us to the place where a man was trapped for 18 days in the dark confines of a cave . . . and ultimately where he lost his life. In my search for additional information, I came across a well-written article by Lucas Reilly on mentalfloss.com. It’s really long, so I’m making it a “Special Edition” piece. You really should check it out; although I’ll warn you, after reading Mr. Reilly’s rendition, you may never find my posts entertaining again.
We covered Mammoth Cave pretty well! The other tours that were offered covered the same areas we were already in, so we feel we did all that. At least until they open a section they’ve closed for whatever reason. Next time!
At the end of the day, we were really tired. We both seem to be having trouble adjusting to the time change this time. I know. I know. I just told you that I don’t have a problem with it, but this time I am. My theory is that it’s because we lost two hours at once, and the fact that the sun sets about 4:45pm.
I have a reason for telling you that.
We have a new neighbor. He came in yesterday; just a single guy. He has a tall propane heating tower.
But when we got home, there were four people and an additional car visiting him. They seem to enjoy their alcohol, including the hard stuff. They began enjoying it around 6:30pm and the more they enjoyed it, the louder they became. We kept our TV turned up, so it wasn’t too bad.
But remember when I said we were tired? Well, we were ready for bed at 9:30pm, but they were not. Which meant that we could not. Quite time here is 10:00pm – in large, bold print and underlined on the paperwork they gave us “Quiet time is 10:00pm – 6:00am. This is absolute quiet, everyone in, and settled for the night.”
The new people are apparently illiterate. . . . Very sad. . . .
At 10:10pm, I called the owners, but was forced to leave a voicemail. We didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.
Five people stood around this thing for over five hours!
AND it was really cold outside! A couple were wrapped in blankets.
Such is the life of nomads . . . .