"We shall individually be held responsible for doing one jot less than we have ability to do...But when we give ourselves wholly to God, and in our work follow His directions, He makes Himself responsible for its accomplishment. He would not have us conjecture as to the success of our honest endeavors. Not once should we even think of failure. We are to cooperate with One who knows no failure." ~Messages to Young People, p. 309

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Deep Below Raccoon Mountain...

Today my parents treated my sister and I to the most spectacular treat! They drove us to Raccoon Mountain Caverns and we all had a spelunk-ular time on the guided, 45 minute Crystal Palace Tour. I believe the Crystal Palace Tour is about a (comfortable) quarter mile long.

One of my first impressions was one I loved: they let you take as many pictures as you want!! (And yes flash is allowed.) While on the dark side, the cave is certainly not super-dark and they are many spots with spotlights illuminating points of interest (for example, the reflection pool at left.) There are stairs with handrails (YEA!) and most of the time you can stand up to your full stature. (However, there are a few very fun times when you must duck through a passage, but you move through the passage, not stopping.) The cave is always a comfortable 60 degrees. I loved seeing all the formations, just everywhere. And boy were there some spectacular views! (see below)






Animals in the cave. Both real and unreal, there are several animal species in the cave. For all you snake-loathers out there (myself included!) you will be delighted to know that no snakes call Raccoon Mountain Caverns home. However, several species of spiders and salamanders do. On our tour we also sighted a sleeping bat! :D




But real animals were not the only "animals" making residence in the cave! There was a rock formation that looked like a saw-tooth tiger, and another one looking like an iguana! :)

The saw-tooth tiger. Can you spot his eye,
paw, head, and teeth??

The iguana. Can you spot his head and eye?


















All the formations and views were really cool too! Following are some more awesome pictures of those.




 Our tour guide said that when a water drop falls on you in the cave, you have received a "cave kiss". These "cave kisses" are supposed to give you 7 years of good luck! Hmmmm......



At the end of the tour our guide was so nice as to take our picture! At times we had been 132 feet underground.

Say..."we love Raccoon Mountain Caverns!" :D This place is really really awesome--I highly recommend it. Of course there was a gift shop, and we helped cart away some squished pennies and a shirt for me! :D

~Photobug

1 comment:

  1. FriendDecember 22, 2010

    Glad you enjoyed it! I was hoping you would! You got some GREAT pictures.

    ReplyDelete

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