Domes & Dripstones Cave Tour, Mammoth Caves National Park, Kentucky

We headed to the Visitors Centre for our Domes & Dripstones tour.

As taken from the Mammoth Cave National Park website here is the information about this tour:

Domes & dripstones Tour
Take a 4 mile bus ride from the visitors center to the New Entrance to Mammoth Cave. Descend approximately 280 stairs through a dramatic series of domes and pits. Continue the journey through large Mammoth sized passages and conclude the cave experience as you take a short walk through a variety of dripstone formations. The tour exits from the Frozen Niagara Entrance to the cave where visitors board a bus for the ride back to the visitor center. It's a great way to see the many faces of some of Mammoth Cave's passageways. ***This your includes the entire Frozen Niagara Tour route.

Duration: 2 hours              Distance: 3/4 mile
Total Stairs: 500 including the initial 280 on the staircase decent
Difficulty: Moderate         Tour Capacity: 118

We took a bus like this one to the cave entrance.

I'll let the pictures do the talking for the tour. The pictures really don't do it justice but you get an idea.

Hopping on the bus back to the Visitors Center

 When we got back the girls found a hurt butterfly. They went to the ranger and asked the rangers if they could help the butterfly...sweet souls...and he suggested that maybe they place the butterfly near food so it can live out the rest of their life happily...so that is what they did.

We loved the tour and hope to visit and do a different tour again sometime.

Florida Caverns State Park, Marianna, Florida

We had a very quick one night visit to Florida Caverns State Park. We arrived and decided to do the cave tour right away, without even setting up the trailer in the campsite. We parked in the parking lot near the caves tours and bought tickets. Parts of the caverns were closed now due to flooding so we got in for $5 each instead of their regular fee of $8 (kids are always $5).

When leaving the parking lot you are greeted by this statue to "commemorate the young men of the civilian conservation corps who developed and preserved the nations natural resources for the pleasure of future generations. (CCC Worker 1933-1942)...May 2014 dedication".

Information about native species

We waited here for the tour guide to arrive. When he did we had him all to ourselves as no one else booked the same time slot.

Just as our tour guide showed up so did this Skink..

 And shortly down the trail to the caves we saw this...

 Rough Green Snake...my first time. He was so long and slender.

Columbine

 We entered the cave via a descending staircase. They keep the doors locked so people do not sneak in and get lost. This entrance isn't the normal cave entrance but due to the flooding we have to enter here.

 I'll let the cave pictures speak for themselves...even though the pictures really don't do them justice.

Some flooding in the cave

A cave salamander which I think he said was a Three Lined Salamander

Cave cricket Don't think for a minute that this guy is small.
They are HUGE!

The one and only column you can touch

A Cave Spider

 We all really enjoyed the tour. I thought our guide was awesome and very knowledgeable. We were able to use a flash so the pics are half decent and he did a great job of pointing out the wildlife to us as he knew we were interested in all the creatures that called the cave home. We saw so many different creatures(Including cave crayfish but no picture as they were too fast). I'd assume that due to the time of year it is less busy and therefore the creatures are disturbed less and can live  a more normal life when it's less busy.

After our tour we set up our campsite for the night.

The girls wanted to go swimming so we took a walk to the Blue Hole.

Picnic area near the swimming hole

 But when we arrived we were all very disappointed. Due to the heavy rain and flooding the area has had, the water is all stirred up, murky, and the swimming hole is closed. Instead of being a beautiful blue it was a murky gray green.

 Hopefully the next time we pass by we will be able to visit the Blue Hole and have a swim. Maybe we will stay at Falling Waters State Park for a change and just pop over here for a swim so we can stay somewhere new.

Back to the campsite for some time in the hammock because that always makes us feel better!

And well if the hammock a lone doesn't cheer you then making funny fish faces should!