Dinosaur World and Big Mike’s Rock Shop

     Remember how I said when we pulled up outside Crystal Onyx Cave it was a bit cheesy and off putting because the statues basically looked like giant toys? Well, we decided to go to Dinosaur world, since the caves are around 2 hours away from Lexington and you really want to make the trip worth it. 

     Dinosaur world is not worth it. I did take a bunch of photos, but they basically are not worth sharing. They were not well done or realistic looking. And I know that we don't really know exactly what the dinosaurs looked like, but I am pretty sure it wasn't like these statues. Travis said he wanted to go and it was a nice hike with weird statues in the woods. I even made a doctor's appointment while we toured because it was quiet enough for me to do it (and they had called). The best part of Dinosaur World was the T-Rex T-shirt that Travis got. The rest was silly bit a nice walk because it wasn't super hot. 

     We also stopped at Big Mike's Rock shop for the second day in a row. We went when we went to Mammoth cave (and we went to the Mammoth Cave Wildlife museum on the way to Mammoth, but I didn't bother to do a post about that either). Big Mike's has some really excellent prices on rocks and minerals. It was definitely worth stopping at. Twice.

      This was the end of the time we spent out near the caves on this trip. The first day, when we had pre-booked tickets to Mammoth, was when I discovered that Cave City is in the Central time zone. So we were already going to be early to Mammoth, but ended up VERY early. On our second day I planned in the time travel, but also planned out the trip that we could do a lot in the area and still get back to Lexington at a reasonable hour. And even with the silly dinosaur tour, it was a fun day doing vacation-type things. 
 

Crystal Onyx Cave

     When Travis and I first drove up to Crystal Onyx Cave I thought it looked kind of cheesy and silly. There were tons of random statues everywhere, including alicorns, animals of all kinds, and aliens. And not well done stuff, but sort of cheesy stuff, kind of like giant toys. This was our second Tuesday cave, which we went to after Diamond Caverns, and I was not sure if I would be disappointed in the cave or not. 

     I was not disappointed in the cave. Even though it was presented in sort of a silly way, at times, it was another beautiful, living cave. Our guide, Heather, was very knowledgeable on both the history of the cave, and caves in general. Travis also made friends with Heather immediately (and I told her that Travis really likes Heathers).

     Most of the rooms at the beginning of the tour were not very large, but they were very beautiful. 

     I have seen similar cave formations on different scales. Some caves that look like this are very large and open. And some are smaller, where you are a lot closer to the cave and you really have to pay attention to make sure you don't touch it. Crystal Onyx Cave is another living cave. 

      There were bridges over some VERY deep places. The fact that you can see through the bridges had me looking at the ceiling quite a lot and guiding myself by sliding my fingers along the railing. I am extremely afraid of heights, though most caves are worth dealing with it so I can see them. We will never go to Hidden River Cave, in Horse Cave, KY, because it has a suspension bridge. That will scare the crap out of me! It's sad that there is a cave I can definitely not go to, but there are lots of caves that don't have swinging things for you to walk on. 

     There were somewhat tighter places to get through, but nothing super small. 

     There was a lot of water. 

    And some higher places where you go down stairs to get to the lower areas. 

     Sometimes when we are on a bridge or set of stairs, I think about what seeing the cave was like before walkways and stairs. Would I even like caves if they were climbing and crawling? I really don't know. Even the wild cave tours (I can take one at Howe Caverns if I want) is not exploring, it's just not a curated bit of cave. 

    Travis likes caves, and really liked Heather. He spent a lot of time with her on the tour. And she was especially nice to him, and the very little boy on our tour (9 people total on the tour). 

     Heather took photos for anyone that wanted them. I don't pass up a chance to get cave photos!

    This bit of the cave reminded me a bit of the pipe organ in Howe Caverns

     Heather told our group that anyone that wanted a really cool photo should bring our phones into a particular area, switch it to selfie mode, pop our heads into the picture and use the ceiling (way up) as the background. My phone decided to get stuck on portrait mode and I haven't yet been able to figure out how to turn it off. But we sort of got a cool photo.

   There were more explored places that we passed that were not on the tour, but might be on the second tour. Crystal Onyx Cave has 2 levels that are used for tours, and you are welcome to take a second tour ( for a slight discount, even) to see the other part of the cave. 

     Every once in a while I will inch close to the edge of a bridge to get a photo of the deep places. Not too close, so these photos usually don't end up being great. 

     I mentioned that Heather was very nice to Travis, and they actually spent a lot of the tour holding hands. She offered, and he accepted. And then she told him to lead the way, often. And he dragged her through the cave! He likes to do most things very quickly. 

     These formations are called cave straws, and they are all hollow, which I tried to get a decent photo of. 

     A whole collection of cave straws!

    I believe this room was called the room of imagination. We were asked to look at the formations and find things that reminded us of other things. This reminded me of a castle on a hill. 

     This reminded a lot of us of a T-Rex!

     This formation, on the way back out of the cave, reminded me of a lizard. Apparently, they have decided it's Bowser, from Super Mario. 

     More scary high places. 

 More secret dark places. 

     Travis had such a good time in this cave, a lot of it likely because he became immediate friends with our guide, Heather. This was a fun experience and I am glad I tried it, even though I was a little put off and unsure when I first pulled up to the place. 

      We liked the cave, and our tour guide, so much that we decided to stick around and take the second tour. Especially after I found out that Heather would again be our guide. No one else was there for that tour, so Travis and I got a private tour of the second cave! There was one part that was very (very) low, that Heather said opened up into a tube where you could stand up. She gave Travis a flashlight and said he could go in and check it out. He chose not to. I tried, but my body didn't want to cooperate with me. Heather said it IS possible to duck-walk in to get to the tube, but my knee and my hip were locking up after 6 feet and I didn't think I would make it. The floor was also gravel, and muddy, and since I had nothing to change into (and a bad knee that hurts to kneel on it) I didn't chance going in. And I am BUMMED I didn't get a chance to go places that usually only guides get to see. But we had a great double tour. What a great day of caving!
 

Diamond Caverns

     Travis and I had so much much visiting Mammoth Cave that we decided to make a second trip out to Cave City on Tuesday, to see some more caves. After all, there are LOTS of caves in the area. Several of them are privately owned, unlike Mammoth, which is part of the national parks. The first cave on our second day of cave tours was Diamond Caverns. 

     Unlike Mammoth, which is a dry cave system, Diamond Caverns are a living cave, which means they are a wet cave. Living means they are still growing. There are super strict rules about not touching the cave walls. The oils from our hands coat the limestone and stop the growth. And living caves are super cool. 

      There are areas of Diamond Caverns that have been explored a bit, but are not on the official tour, or able to safely be on a tour. I don't remember exactly where they are, but there is a part of the cave that takes about 6 hours to get into (a lot of wiggling and crawling apparently) but if it rains the passages can flood and fill in about 20 minutes. So those parts of the cavern have a lot of risk for not much reward. 

     Being a dry cave system, Mammoth Cave looks a lot different than Diamond Caverns. The walls in Mammoth are mostly flat, though there is a tour (which we will go on another time) that is a wetter part of the cave system and has smaller rooms with cooler formations. 

     Diamond Caverns has so many cool formations! I had a chat with our guide at one point (there were only 7 people on our tour, it was great!) and I told him about the other caverns I had been to. Not enough yet!

     At the end of our tour I told the guide that I think Diamond Caverns might be prettier than Howe Caverns (which is in New York). He was very pleased to hear that!

     Part of our tour, like most tours, was a bit of history of the cave and the discovery of it. I don't remember every bit of the story, but the original entrance was a small hole (which is in the current day ceiling of the caverns) where they lowered down a skinny teenager with a lamp. He looked around and the light glittered off the stones. So he yelled back that the cavern was full of diamonds (which it is not) and that is how it got the name, Diamond Caverns. 

     There were so many beautiful cave formations. Flowstone, stalactites and stalagmites. Columns (which form when the stalactites and stalagmites grow together), cave bacon (transparent bits of thin stone that look like bacon), and so many other cool things to see. 

     Being a wet cave, there was also a lot of water. And unlike Mammoth, which has a sandstone layer over the limestone, which keeps it dry, Diamond Caverns will rain inside, shortly after it rains outside. Though rain inside a cave is not the same as rain on the surface. Not that I wasn't constantly getting dripped on, I was. 

    These look like cave jelly-fish and they might be called that, I don't recall now. 

      Travis and I took a cave selfie that actually worked. Not all of them do. 

    Cave bacon

      There were plenty of dark, secret looking places in Diamond Caverns. They sort of made me a tiny bit nervous (well, not really, but maybe they should), since you never know what might be down in a cave (there are things living in living caves). Sometimes, if they are not tiny, they make me want to explore. I don't know how I would do with actual wild caving. I want to try it. I don't know if Travis would like it. 

      This is the wedding chapel, where many people have actually been married. The altar was made from stones from the cave. 

      This looked like some kind of dragon or monster to me. Big teeth anyway. Maybe a lizard. 

    There was a wall full of signatures

    Our guide, Stanton, was very knowledgeable about the signatures and could point out ones from the state you were from. And on a small tour, it was easy to ask everyone where they were from. This one is from Massachusetts. 

     A proper cave photo with Travis. I think I have a picture with at least Travis (at least a selfie) in every cave I have been in. Travis has been with me on all my cave tours (other than one I took when I was little). 

     Near the end of the tour, Stanton told us about a second exit that was starting to be built but abandoned. I don't remember when the construction started, though all that it is is a long staircase to nowhere. He said he had been up it once to change the lightbulb at the top of the steps. I don't currently remember why the project was abandoned, but it turns out it was a good thing. Surface weather can mess up the inside of a cave. Mammoth cave has a giant door, which is not actually to keep people out of the cave, but to keep the outside temperature and weather outside the cave. If Diamond Caverns had managed to finish the exit that was started, the airflow between the front and back entrance would have killed the cave!

         I took a lot of photos in Diamond Caverns, and spent the entire tour smiling like an idiot. Even though part of every cave tour is usually telling you how far you are underground, somehow that doesn't bother me. Sure, the idea of that amount of stone above me should probably make me nervous, but it doesn't. Giant boulders on the ground, that clearly were once part of the ceiling, don't bother me either. I don't know why. I do know that I find caves to be absolutely beautiful, fascinating places, and I want to see more of them!