Spelunking Adventure . . .

Okay . . . I don't know if you can really call it spelunking when you are walking on a path for a guided tour of a cave, but you get the idea.

This past week in science we studied caves. We had talked about going to Meremac Caverns for a family field trip, then we discovered that is would cost $51 for our family to get in! Yikes! So I decided to research other caves in the area and I found the Fisher Cave in Meremac State Park. It has no claim to Jesse James, but it is definitely less touristy and cost us only $20. (It's actually only 4 miles past Meremac Caverns) Sounds like a plan to me!
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We originally planned to do some hiking first, then tour the cave, but we didn't get there early enough. Our cave tour lasted 1 1/2 hours and was very cool. Afterwards we had to head back home for some rest before the bonfire and hayride at RBC tonight.
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The cave was totally awesome! I couldn't help but to stand in awe of my Creator. There were times when we felt like we were walking through a forest of stalactites, stalagmites and columns. There were times when we had to walk, bent in half, for a long enough distance that I was feeling it in my legs. At the midpoint in the tour they turned off all of the lanterns so we could experience total darkness. It's amazing how that messes with your eyes. They kept trying to find something to focus on, without any luck. But how often do you really experience total darkness? The kids thought it was really cool. I wondered if Meg and Julie would have a hard time with it, but we prepared them and they did fine. Julie kept whispering in my ear, telling me it was dark. Then she started singing "Jesus loves me." I don't know if she was trying to comfort herself, or if it was just random, but it was darn cute!
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As you can imagine, I took tons of pictures. Here are a few . . .

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Here the water has flowed over this stone and created little pools of water - some the size of a bathtub.
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I love this picture!
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Here you can see where the water eroded the stone.
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A massive column in a room that had to be 3 stories high. The picture just doesn't do it justice!
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Flowstone. The white is fresh calcite.
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Okay . . . so, taking pictures of people is difficult to do in a dark cave. In most of my pictures, my flash illuminated my family, but it just looked like they were standing alone in the dark. I had to think strategically to get a picture where I could see the people and the cave formations. Of course, I couldn't see much in my viewfinder, so I had no idea that Meg's back was to me.
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And finally, everyone is looking, etc . . . But this one was actually taken outside of the cave : )
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Overall it was an experience that I would definitely recommend!