[Rockhounds] Trip Report: Up One Side and Down the Other – Phase I

[Glenn Wimpee]

Day 1 found us leisurely motoring from home in Lower Alabama south of Mobile to Cave City, Kentucky with a pause just north of Decatur, Alabama for lunch with some terrific in-laws.
 
Day 2 Mammoth Cave beckoned and the skies threatened. We elected to take the four hour guided tour. Be forewarned, it is strenuous. On the other hand, there was no rain in the caverns. Several hundred steps led to deep in the cave near the entrance. Gypsum extruded through the sandstone walls and ceiling in white curling patterns for about the first easy mile. Then we trekked the hills to about 250 feet below ground level. Water trickled through near the deepest underground valley. 
 
Then we hit the mountains. Mt. McKinley about did us old fat folks in trying to keep up with the ranger. There are worn areas that look like sandy creek bottoms 360 degrees in the cave tunnel. The scalloping is larger where water flowed slowly, and small close scalloping eroded in the cave where the flow was fast and furious.
 
A deep fossil layer was pointed out to us deep in the cave. Brachiopods and gastropods and clams were clearly visible. I think if we had not asked, we’d have missed the fossils.
 
The best came near the end of the tour and as we caught our breath we came to the limestone formations and the “Frozen Niagara” stalactites, stalagmites, and columns resembling the waterfalls. “Crystal Lake” is deep and surrounded by the beautiful deposits.
 
Then it was out of the caverns and into the storm that was no longer threatening but forcefully raining and blowing. A wild turkey watched from the side of the road as the park bus shuttled us back to the visitor center. Trees swayed and bent, heavy with rain and stressed by the wind.
 
In the comfort of our Honda Pilot the roads of the park took us through forests, and ferries took us across one spot on the Green River and back over another. Nature’s beauty was all around in all shades of wet spring green, flowers of white and lavender, asphalt black wet and sparkling, and multicolored gravel roads were sprinkled with small newly grown limbs and leaves like green snow strewn by the storm.
 
Stay tuned for Phase II. 
 
 
Glenn  & Jeanette
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