Back in May after my B-day, I took a trip to see the Florida caves for the first time. (Yes, this is much belated.) Who even knew there were caves in Florida? That aren’t underwater that is. The only above-water caves in the state are at Florida Caverns State Park, see here.
Swamp on the drive in…
It’s outside of Tallahassee, a 4 hour drive from Jacksonville. It had severely rained the day before, so there were an unbelievable amount of mosquitos and over 1/3 of the caves were flooded, but it was still worth the trip.
statue in front of the path to the Visitor’s Center
the first cave entrance
We had to pass the first entrance and enter the second to skirt around the flooded areas.
descending into the caves
They do tour groups frequently – I think every 1/2 hour. It’s not a thing where you can just go on your own, but the tour is helpful anyway as the guide was very knowledgeable.
Some areas were much wider than I expected!
I had my low light lens, but it doesn’t do well in close quarters since it’s a set focal length. So I had to break out the cell phone for some of the pics (like the above grainy one.)
stalactites!
They call this the “wedding cake,” and they actually do have weddings here, but for small parties only.
plenty of lights…in some areas, the miners inlaid bits of ceramic plates in the rock to reflect light and spread light around more.
impressive
All the lights are standard white/orange. I think they should mix it up with some blues/reds/greens. Thank you, Photoshop.
more pretty….
I don’t really have a pic of it, but in some areas the stalagmites are gray or black colored. The guide said that oil in human skin causes it to react that way over time, so you should avoid touching anything.
still pool of water
Pretty sure a bat is lurking in there.
It was pretty awesome. Can’t imagine being tasked with digging that all out in mostly darkness.
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