November 3, 2015 Domes and Dripstone Tours

Another beautiful day - sunny and blue skies.  Love this photo of Andy saluting the flag:

We were up early and made our way to the Visitor Center for our Domes and Dripstones Tour.  We took a 10 minute bus ride to the New Cave Entrance.  This entrance was made in 1921 by blasting a hole in the bottom of this sinkhole into the main part of the cave. (It was not owned by the National Park at that time.)

In we went and down 280 stairs to the main part of the cave which was 250 feet below ground.  (We could not take flash pictures so these may not be the best.)

Here we go:

Looking into the pit - Scary:

Some areas were wide:

And some were tight:

One of the main cave areas – it was huge!  You can see one of the members of our tour in the lower right of this picture:

These caves were created by water millions of years ago.  The walls of the cave are limestone and as the water left, some of the layers collapsed.  Over the top, however, is a formation known as capstone that keeps the cave from totally collapsing.

Mammoth Cave is one of the longest caves in the world – so far over 405 miles have been explored and mapped – WOW!

Although this part of the cave is considered a dry cave, at times water has seeped in and created these stalactites

Amazing, isn’t it.  Every time we turned a corner or entered a different room, we were in AWE!:

Now we have entered into the wet part of the cave where the formations (dripstones) are just incredible.  Here is the “Frozen Niagara” formation which is a conglomeration of stalactites measuring 75 feet high and 50 feet wide.  We walked down 49 stairs to the bottom of the “Drapery Room.”

Close up of the “Frozen Niagara” Formation – WOW!:

These are known as cave draperies:

How cool is this!:

We exited thru a different opening and were bused back to the Visitor Center- this place is AMAZING!

After having lunch, we took a drive to Cave City for gasoline for the generator.  So many old barns:

How about the size of this rooster- :

This evening we enjoyed another wonderful campfire. 

Another cave tour is on the schedule for tomorrow so stay tuned and enjoy today!