A Caving Adventure

This past weekend my parents came over to visit and so we took a trip out to Indian Caverns in Pennsylvania, one of the 9 commercialized caves in the state. The region is composed of limestone bedrock which creates lots of sinkholes and grandiose limestone caves. There are over 100 caves in PA, but most of them are only open to spelunking hobbyists with 9 of them being commercialized and open to the public with daily tours.
When we first arrived at Indian Caverns we were greeted by a friendly older gentleman who told us that the next tour didn't leave for another hour, but in the meantime we could entertain ourselves by feeding the fish in Spruce Creek. Those fish (mostly rainbow trout) were HUGE!!! Whenever they weren't eating they would automatically line up next to each other and all face upstream which was pretty cool.
They all had really large mouths as well. Some of fish liked to make large splashes in the water when they were gobbling up the food we offered them. There were even beautiful green damsel flies flying around the stream.
By the time we were done feeding the fish the tour of the cave was ready to start. This was definitely one of the smaller caves I have been in, but the formations inside were just as spectacular. There were some really awesome large stalactite/stalagmite formations (aka columns) that I just had to capture.
One of the best formations looked like an Native American female ghost. There was also the "Frozen Niagara"
One of the most impressive things I saw in the cave was a hanging wall that just looked like a sheet of rock stuck in the cave at an angle and was supposedly many times stronger then steel!
Along the walls, ceiling, and in some untouched places along the floor there were many examples of "cave bacon", "columns", "stalactites"

and something I like to call "cave snakes" or "dreadlocks".
Near the end of the tour our guide pointed out a rock which was found when the cave was being developed in 1929....this rock had Native American writing on it which includes the symbol of the Mohawk nation (they were the last tribe to use the cave).
There was also a display case in the cave that housed the Native American items found in the cave including pottery shards and arrowheads to name a few.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures shown above (matting available), please contact me via my email: asquirrelstale@gmail.com or through my Etsy shop: A Squirrels Tale

6 comments:

ABrushWithHumor said...

Great photos - what an adventure! I think I might get a little antsy down there, I prefer the open spaces!
Nothinglikeit!

Liz said...

sounds like a great place, I like the native american artifacts, that 'cave snake' looked a bit rudey! lol

Moonchild Dancing! said...

Cool pictures! I'd like to explore a cave sooner or later. :)

TrishaRitchieNC said...

Very interesting! Thanks for publishing this post!

PurrPrints said...

Great pics--btw, who in efa should I talk to about getting the great animated efa logo for my blog? I was going to just put them in a link list but that seems a more noticeable way to bring attention to the team shop.

thanks!

Crystal Ware said...

Your photos are great! Sounds like an amazing adventure =D