I recently visited a nearby Cavern attraction near West Liberty, Ohio referred to as the Ohio Caverns. They have two different tours you can take during the summer and one during the winter (since it is always 54 degrees), so I decided to try them both. The Historic Tour is the first system that was found in 1897. It was not well preserved, but has a fair amount of good information about how the attraction came to be. The other option is the Natural Wonder Tour, which is where all the images in this post came from. This system has been preserved rather well and has countless stalactites, stalagmites, and columns along with some amazing colors from minerals. Now that all that information is out of the way lets get to some more of my favorite pictures!
This is how rust naturally deposits. No wind, no rain, no temperature or humidity changes. Then, as if the beautiful design itself is not enough we get all this orangish (that's right I said it) color to be mesmerized by.
This is my personal favorite.....I am not 100% why, but it gives me a really tranquil feeling. Not as much as seeing it in person, but a great memory nonetheless. If anyone can comment how the designs got on the wall I would like to hear about it. Couldn't find our guide when I came upon it. Tip: Stay with your group! ( A story for another time.)
This is the largest of the stalactites in the system and according to the guides one of the largest anywhere. It is referred to as The Crystal King and is rather impressive at almost 5 feet long and 400 pounds. It takes around 500-1000 years to form a cubic inch of calcite crystal, which is how they estimate the ripe old age of 200,000! Not a bad reign for a king....
The coloration in this image is not something I expected to see underground. I trust you remember that the orange is rust, but what of the purple? The deep violet you are seeing is manganese. Great for batteries and once ionized has potential in its pigments!
I chose this as my final picture in this post as a little public service announcement. The green you see here is moss. Not found in your typical cavern system, but spores get carried in by tourists. Not everything can be stopped but be sure to follow yours guides rules, wherever you cave, to help preserve the site for future visitors. More caves and caverns to be explored soon.....but first off to finally getting this quadcopter going!