The feature tourist destination of our FallAbout 2011 trip was the Mystery Cave at the Forestville State Park near Preston, MN. I have only familiarized myself with the underground mines of Minnesota, never really taken into consideration that there could be or actually are real naturally occurring caves in this great state! I had to go see the Mystery Cave. We took the hour long tour and went with a small group through the limestone cave. Limestone is a soft rock that is very porous, partially soluble, and can change shape and shift within a relatively short period of time. I loved seeing how the cave we walked through was relatively new (carved out from the Root River within the past century and a half or so). The cave was not too chilly, probably in the high 40s and comparable in temperature to the outdoor current temperature at the time. We didn't have to take an elevator to get to the heart of the cave(like you do at mines). We just walked in through a pressure and temperature regulated entrance and then into the main area of the cave.
The cave was well lit and not overly creepy. We did get to see a few bats whiz by our heads, but they were as harmless as the rock we were walking on. The photo below is of a hibernating bat in the cave - reportedly one of the rarest breeds of bats we ever see in Minnesota.
We weren't allowed to touch the rock with our fingers, the oils from our skin degrades the rock and prevents water from touching any area of the rock that has been contacted. I wanted to lick the rock! It all looked like chocolate to me! I felt like I was in some crazy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory novel.
There were fossils in the cave - one of a giant sea squid (from back when all of Minnesota used to be covered in water) and a 5 foot fossil of another sea beast that I can't recall at the moment.
What looks like a brown liquid pouring down the rock is actually rock!
A shot of the ceiling with little stalactites -
Doesn't this look like a chocolate fountain? It is rock! But I wouldn't mind licking it to set myself straight!
The tour guide told us stories about the olden days when the cave was privately owned and then sold in the late 1980s for just under a million dollars to the state. Can you imagine owning your very own cave? A new dream to aspire toward...
0 comments:
Post a Comment