King of the Neighborhood

There has been a big buck hanging around the neighborhood this fall. Nice rack on one side. If complete it would have been an eight pointer. This picture was taken in the next door neighbor's front yard. Hope I see his cousin in November in Shawnee National Forest down south.

Mammoth Weekend

On the Columbus Day weekend we loaded up the Jeep and headed to Kentucky and Mammoth Cave National Park. Its a 6-7 hour trip from Chicago. It was the family's first visit. Diane had been there over 30 years ago on a family trip. The Park did not disappoint as can be seen in the pictures below. The cave did turn out to be a photography challenge. But we did get some nice pictures. It was a wonderful trip and we had a great time. It was also another junior ranger badge for the boys (#19). We would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have claustrophobia.




Day 1, Historic Tour. This is the natural and historic entrance into Mammoth Cave. Humans have been entering for at least the past 4000 years. Mammoth cave is the worlds longest cave. Its called Mammoth Cave because of the large size of many of the rooms formed by rivers that used to flow underground here. The river is now much deeper allowing you to walk in the dry upper passsageways.




Mammoth cave in this area is full of large rooms and narrow passageways. Unfortunately, the large rooms were too big to capture with flash photography. Here is one of the narrow passageways.




The Mammoth Cave is full of evidence of previous visitors over the years.




A interesting picture of Alex, wish I knew how I did it.




The rooms are large and the walls are carved by water to form interesting shapes.




Diane and Bart squeezing through a tight spot on the tour.




Tom on the other side of this tight spot.




Next the famous Fat Man"s Misery. The trail becomes very narrow up to about waist high as the ceiling gets lower.




Bart takes a breather in Fat Man's Misery.




Diane and Bart in a tight stretch of Fat Man's Misery. Bart looks a bit worried about everyone getting through.




The tight stretch ends with tall mans misery. Tom had fun squeezing through.




The Historic Tour was a great way to start our Mammoth Cave adventure.




Day 2, Great Onyx Lantern Tour. We got a special treat with a tour of Great Onyx Cave. Its only open to the public for a couple month each fall. Its a cave not yet connected to the mammoth cave system that does not have electric lighting. Therefore, lanterns are used to illuminate the way.




Touring the cave by lantern light was really cool. It gave you a feeling of what it was like to tour the caves by candle light in historic times.



The first part of the cave was full of columns, stalactites, straws, and stalagmites. Here is a nice column illuminated by lantern.




This is a gypsum flower. There were a couple in the cave, Very unique formation.




Deep in the cave the walls were lined with gypsum. Very white and sparkly. Very well preserved!




The great Onyx Cave also has Helictites. Helictites are cave structures that form in asymetric ways. This one is called the witch's finger. Thanks to the ranger for illumination with flashlight.



Touring the Great Onyx Cave by lantern light was a wonderful caving experience. What a great way to tour such a well preserved cave. Shame it was so difficult to photograph.




Along he road in the park we saw this large Tom turkey. Beautiful bird. Makes me think that T-day (Thanksgiving day or Turkey Day) is just around the corner.




We visited the Cave City Action Park. Bart and Alex raced in the go-karts. They took it all very seriously and got yelled at for running into each other.




Diane, Bart, and Alex went on the alpine slide. There was a 1/4 mile concrete track down the hilslide supported by a ski lift.




Even Tom went for a drive.




Bart had fun on the bungee trampoline. It took a number of tries but eventually he was able to do back flips. He complained about a sore back and neck for the next couple days.




Alex also enjoyed the bungee trampoline. Excellent safeguard for face plant prevention. Alex also did a back flip.




We visited Mike's Mystery House. Lots of interesting real life optical illusions.




Diane defies gravity in the Mystery House. The best part was that it was only $1.00 to enter, fifty cents for children with a guided tour. We had a lot of fun.




Day 3, The New Entrance Tour. This tour starts with a big drop down stairs into mammoth cave. Lots of stairs. Bart and Alex like to be up front with the lead ranger.




Lots of tight spaces on the long climb down. Around 270 steps.




Alex in a low ceiling area located 300 feet below the entrance.




Bart in an open area in the middle of the tour.




Tom and Diane at the entrance to the Niagra Falls area. The best is about to come.




The tour ended with a walk through the Niagra Falls area. It was quite a site. Its easy to see why its one of the most visited areas of the park.




The Drapery Room was lined with wonderful structures.






There is plenty of water at the Niagra Falls rooms. The structures are changing before your eyes (just very slowly). The Stalactites here are growing. You can see a bead of cloudy water at each of their tips. Those minerals precipitate and form the structures.




The New Entrance Tour was a great way for us to finish our Mammoth Caves adventure. The caves of Kentucky are big and diverse. They also have a very interesting historical component being a tourist attraction since the early 1800's. The National Parks are so wonderful.




On the way home we stopped at the Abraham Lincoln birthplace Historic site. This year was his 200th birthday. Unfortunately, the best part, the Memorial Building, was closed for renovation. There was also some damage from an ice storm last winter. The boys completed the activities and earned a junior ranger badge. That makes 20 badges.




Then there was a fun 6 hour drive home. Some of us got to take a nap