On the other side of Blue Mountain National Park, along kilometers and kilometers of winding roads through the hills (looked like Appalachia!!) is Kanaranga-Boyd National Park, which is home to the Jenolan Caves system. My friend Rob has a car and a driver's license here so we took the train to meet him and then drove the rest of the way. I wish the weather would have been better because we were really hoping to see some kangaroos or wombats, but no such luck. We had been told that the roads were "harrowing" and with the misting rain we had all morning, it was a little scary, but overall a successful roadtrip. Once we got there, we quickly figured out that the caves are enormous...not only the entrances, but the systems themselves. There are about 15 different tours you can take that bring you to totally different parts of the caves. We chose one that was 1.5 hours and that we were told was the most popular of all the tours that took us into Lucas Cave. Since the caves are in the mountains, it was a different experience than I have had before where you go down to get to the cave systems because today instead we were climbing UP stairs. Inside was seriously insane. I've been caving before, but when they turn all the lights off it still blows my mind how completely black it gets. We saw lots of interesting limestone/calcite formations and some of the "River Styx" which is the subterranean river that runs through the caves and is the reason that they are shaped the way they are today. The largest "room" on the tour was called "The Cathedral" and had spectacular formations that all took the shapes of things you would find in a church; the organ, the pulpit, the stain-glass windows, etc. They told us that John Denver had once played a concert there and that weddings and regular church services are sometimes held there as well. I can only imagine how great it would have been to hear "Country Roads" live, while standing inside one of God's greatest wonders. It was foggy and rainy all day so we didn't a chance to do any hiking above ground, but the trips below ground definitely made all of our time spent traveling worth it. (I left for the train station at 8am and just got back at 11pm...) Tonight I'll be falling asleep to the sounds of the cool rain outside which is sort of a welcomed break from the usual heat during the night. From what I have been hearing, it sounds like Michigan is warming up into spring while we are steadily losing beach days here!
On the other side of Blue Mountain National Park, along kilometers and kilometers of winding roads through the hills (looked like Appalachia!!) is Kanaranga-Boyd National Park, which is home to the Jenolan Caves system. My friend Rob has a car and a driver's license here so we took the train to meet him and then drove the rest of the way. I wish the weather would have been better because we were really hoping to see some kangaroos or wombats, but no such luck. We had been told that the roads were "harrowing" and with the misting rain we had all morning, it was a little scary, but overall a successful roadtrip. Once we got there, we quickly figured out that the caves are enormous...not only the entrances, but the systems themselves. There are about 15 different tours you can take that bring you to totally different parts of the caves. We chose one that was 1.5 hours and that we were told was the most popular of all the tours that took us into Lucas Cave. Since the caves are in the mountains, it was a different experience than I have had before where you go down to get to the cave systems because today instead we were climbing UP stairs. Inside was seriously insane. I've been caving before, but when they turn all the lights off it still blows my mind how completely black it gets. We saw lots of interesting limestone/calcite formations and some of the "River Styx" which is the subterranean river that runs through the caves and is the reason that they are shaped the way they are today. The largest "room" on the tour was called "The Cathedral" and had spectacular formations that all took the shapes of things you would find in a church; the organ, the pulpit, the stain-glass windows, etc. They told us that John Denver had once played a concert there and that weddings and regular church services are sometimes held there as well. I can only imagine how great it would have been to hear "Country Roads" live, while standing inside one of God's greatest wonders. It was foggy and rainy all day so we didn't a chance to do any hiking above ground, but the trips below ground definitely made all of our time spent traveling worth it. (I left for the train station at 8am and just got back at 11pm...) Tonight I'll be falling asleep to the sounds of the cool rain outside which is sort of a welcomed break from the usual heat during the night. From what I have been hearing, it sounds like Michigan is warming up into spring while we are steadily losing beach days here!
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