caves
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Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota
Though the Black Hills themselves are made predominately of granite, beneath the surface lies hundreds of feet of limestone. And where there’s limestone… well, usually there are caves. Such is the case in the Black Hills region. I recently wrote about our visit to Wind Cave National Park. As a national park, this is the… Continue reading
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A world underground – Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns is a depiction of two very different worlds: the one above the ground, and the one below. Up above the sun is hot, the air is dry, and every plant and animal has to be very resilient and adaptable to survive in this niche where the Guadalupe Mountains meet the Chihuahuan Desert. And… Continue reading
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Lava Tubes – Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho (part II)
One of my favorite adventure activities is exploring caves. I’ve never truly gone spelunking (it’s on my to-do list), but if we’re somewhere with a cave, we always sign up for the tours. As it happens, formation of caves in lava flows is fairly common, meaning there are a few caves at Craters of the Moon… Continue reading
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Spectacular Speleothems – Timpanogos Cave National Monument, Utah
(The posts about our previous stops on this summer roadtrip have been updated to reflect my more recent visits to these parks.) Because the drive home would have been a very long day, we broke it into two days with a stop just south of Salt Lake City at American Fork Canyon in the Wasatch… Continue reading