Fantastic Caverns – October 2023
/A cold fall day – the 60 degrees F. tour inside Fantastic Caverns was warmer than outside! We arrived shortly before 10 AM and had almost no wait before our tour (via Jeep-drawn tram) began. I used the ‘night scene’ setting (causing the camera to stack multiple images for each image) to capture the cave scenes. My favorite is a zoomed image of ‘soda straw’ structures on the ceiling – with water droplets visible!
There are plenty of drapery and column formations to photograph. The lighting in the cave does a good job of enhancing the structures. Unfortunately, it also encourages the greening tinge (algae) to some of the formations.
This was my second visit to Fantastic Caverns, and I quickly realized that different guides emphasize different things. For example – I am pretty sure the guide for my first visit did not share that the darker gray color in the formation below is from manganese!
The reddish color in many of the formations is from iron….and the white is calcium carbonate without anything else to provide color.
Back at the visitor center – I enjoyed a display of pumpkins and other squashes/gourds.
Another successful outing…and afterward on the way back to my house we enjoyed a huge BBQ lunch!
