After a lengthy breakfast at Village Inn (boy, do they have a wonderful vegetarian scramble), Dad and I trekked up the side of a mountain to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. It was really hard work, let me tell you. I don't think I've ever exuded such sweat, not even when I was in basic training for the U.S. Army. Even the views were dizzying.



Shite. You caught me. We rode up the mountain in a gondola (not to be confused with the gondola car we rode in on the Durango to Silverton train, but that's a story for Tuesday).

The views really were dizzying, though, with the beautiful early morning fog.







After we had our feet settled on terra firma up top, we looked around at their various rides. I hadn't wanted to spend the extra cash on any of them, so while we waited for the cave tour, we just walked around and explored what the amusement park had to offer. All in all, it wasn't too impressive, but still probably a lot of fun.

What I was most interested in, though, was the tour of the cave. It began at 9:30 (I think, man I'm getting old that I can't remember anymore), and was led by a teenager just out of high school who'd been doing the tours for three summers. He was entertaining and he had a super cute knit hat, so he has my vote.

You walk through a door into the caverns and are reminded that you are not supposed to touch the stalagmites.



Just in case you don't realize the significance of the sign above the doorway, they make sure to tell you the story of the "fondle-mite."



Apparently back around the beginning of the 20th century or so, some teenagers were visiting a cave with their father and he asked them to break off one of the stalagtites. They did, and took it home with them. About ten years later they felt really bad (it does take millions of years for those to form) and returned it hoping that it could somehow be utilized. Therefore, the owners (or someone affiliated with the caves) stuck the fondle-mite in this little alcove area and they tell everyone who enters the cave to touch away - because you aren't supposed to touch anything else in the cave.

I'm not going to show all the pictures from the caves (and I didn't even put them on Flickr), but I'll highlight my top five favorites. Eventually, I'll add commentary to the pictures on Flickr, too.


I'm a famous cave-explorer-and-rock-namer, and I hereby dubb this "Snot Rock." He told us what it is actually called, but I forget what he said. Instead, I'd like to point out (but not touch) that it looks like snot poured over a rock. The guide told us they call it the "Neapolitan" because it has the brown rock, reddish rock, and white rock. You know - chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla?


I have no idea what this is called and I don't really know anything about it. However, it looks pretty frickin' cool.


The oh-so-famous "Cave Bacon" (look at the bottom of the ridge of rock - hey, I don't know cave formations are called). Our guide informed us that cave trolls love to eat the cave bacon.


Beautiful.


The "Drooling Crab." (Do you see it?!)


The cavern with most of the formations, all lit up. This isn't my favorite of the cavern pictures, but I don't have time right now to go through all 300 shots from that day to try to find it. So - my apologies for the rail in the middle of the picture.

We took the short and less-adventurous tour, but someday I want to try to climb through the 18" crack that leads from the top section of the cave to the cavern below. You know, when I lose 50 pounds. Or more.

Labels: traveling