Onondaga Cave Field trip

For some reason Firedrake is loving exploring caves at this time.  I remember a time when she hated them because they were too dark and scary:)  We found out their was a field trip opening up to visit a cave we had not seen before we signed up.  Firedrake was very excited as we were told this cave had bats and they were easily seen in the grand hall of the cave.  Most of the caves we have been too, the bats are in areas not viewed by the public.

Unfortunately during this visit not a single bat could be found despite the guides efforts to find one:(  While Firedrake was mildly disappointed it was still a great cave to explore:)

Missouri is known as the Cave state

This cave is quite large and at one time it was part of the Cave Wars...as in two people claimed the cave from two different entrance points on their land and often fought over the cave, until it was eventually sold to a single person and eventually given to the state.

While the cave is supposedly steaming with cave wildlife we only saw this tiny salamander.

They only area the kids were allowed to touch

This cave was discovers in the mid 1800's and  here is an old wooden bridge that was used at one time for the old tours.  Wood does not last long inside caves due to the humidity but we saw lots of examples of the old travel routes thru the cave

Called the twin sisters the darker one is no longer active  but the white stalagmite is still active

IN this room there is evidence of the cave shifting--see the broken column...it is due to a collapse  ceiling they believe which happened many years ago

lots of soda straws which are MarioFan's favorite

This is called Kings overhang which is a flow stone that is approximately 35 feet suspended overing the cave river.  They do expect it to collapse one day from the shear weight of the rock

This was called Queens rock and you can see the  ramps built to travel up to the top, prior to the ramps there were over 60 concrete step to take you to the top

waterlily room

 While the guide was talking and asking the kids questions I was very surprised how much information my kids knew about caves and cave wildlife considering it is not an area we have actually studied together.  They have learned this information just be previous field trips we have taken and things they have read on their own.  One of the many benefits of homeschooling:)