Marengo Caves

On day one of Angie's visit to our quaint town of Indy, we decided to take in the outdoors. We drove to Marengo Caves in southern Indiana and spent the afternoon spelunking. Southern Indiana is a cave crawler's paradise. We have over 2,600 known caves, including some of the longest in the United States. Marengo Cave is an old hag. It began forming over a million years ago. There is still an active river flowing through the lower levels of the cave. You can actually take kayak tours through the caves, but with the way Kristin swims, we thought it would be better to walk. Maybe next time, after Kristin has had proper training, we will be adventurous and take the kayak tour.



This is a picture just outside the gift shop area. Even though it was a humid 90 degrees, we knew the caves were going to be around 52 degrees. I guess the limestone keeps the temperature inside the caves at an average. In Indy we go from 0 to 100, so it makes sense that our average temperature would be just around 50. Since Angie can't tollerate anything below Las Vegas's average of what, 90? She requested a jacket to keep her happy.

This is just outside the entrance to the cave before we began our descent.

Over an hour later and more than 200 feet underground, we learned that stalagtites hold tight to the ceiling, stalagmites might reach the ceiling, and columns are what form when they do.

This is one of the last pictures we took before leaving the cave. We made jokes about bats the entire time we were down there, and just after we took this picture, we saw one clinging to the ceiling. So after that, it was definitely time to go. Fortunately, our mile and a half tour was over, the bat was asleep, and we were out before he woke up.