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Thursday, February 10, 2011

2nd Day FLORIDA CAVERNS SP FL Thursday 02/10/2011 Day (28)

 

Well, we woke this morning to a cool 42 degrees and overcast skies. Haven’t run into too much sun in this part of Florida. The residents here tell us that the temp has been running below normal. 

We were a little skeptical about how good the caves could be because we have been to some of the best caves in the country. However, we were pleasantly surprised. We had a great tour guide and learned some new cave facts. Like, the internal temp of the cave is always the average temp of the area. This cave’s average temp runs between 62-65 degrees year round. It was cold outside but felt very humid and warm inside. Other caves we have toured had an average temp of 52 or 42 degrees.

Embedded in  the cave walls were seashells and even some petrified sharks teeth. Where the cave is located was once covered by 300 ft of warm sea water.

The cave had the typical structures including some new findings. Usually, there are  soda straw formations throughout the cave but in this cave there were spiral soda straw formations caused by the swirling wind in the cave directing the drops of   mineral deposits into a spiral formation. Different and very pretty.

 

LINK TO FLORIDA CAVERNS SP FL

http://www.floridastateparks.org/floridacaverns/

IMG_8995

JEWELS MORNING WALK ON

THE SINK HOLE TRAIL

It never did warm up – in fact- it felt very raw and cold but that didn’t stop us from taking a one hour hike down the sink hole trail. It’s amazing how many sink holes are in this area alone. After touring the cave and viewing the  many sink holes we are once again reminded that the ground beneath us is really riddled with caverns and caves – not the Terra-Firma one would think. So I guess that means we’re all subject to the possibility of a sinking experience.

Sink Hole Sink Hole Sink Hole Morning Walk Sink Loop

 

CAVERN TOUR

IMG_9016 Cave Entrance IMG_8999 IMG_9001 Shark Tooth Fossil IMG_9004

 

WEIRD TREE PHOTO

 

 Weird Tree Photo IMG_9028 IMG_9029

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Tomorrow we will head out to Torreya State Park and new adventures. The sun is suppose to shine tomorrow – we’ll see.

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