Grandma and Grandpa Anderson babysat yesterday, so Outing and I took a short road trip to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
We went on the "New Entrance Cave Tour". It was really interesting and we had a great tour guide. He was a retired biology teacher, so he had a great perspective on the cave. It's probably a good thing that all the tours are guided...there are over 300 miles of caves to get lost in.
Photography was a major challenge since it was so dark and no tripods are allowed. We managed to get a couple quick shots that turned out ok.
Some of the caves were amazing. There were some 300 foot formations and caverns. The history behind the cave is from ancient seas that left a large deposit of calcium carbonate. Over eons, this left large layers of limestone all over Kentucky. As it rains and seeps into the caves, the water would absorb carbon dioxide and create a weak acid (carbonic acid) that then dissolves the limestone to create these amazing formations!
Here's a shot of the "Frozen Niagra" formation. It was immediately clear how it got it's name.
During the tour, we learned that constructing some of these stainless steel steps was a challenge. Each step cost about $3000 to install...so it was over $1 million just to construct the stairs for our tour. In other words, it's pretty much as if each stair was made of silver.
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