Mines. Caves. For some reason Mike and I are always looking for a chance to descend into the bowels of the earth. Penn's Cave, located in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania, is unique because a stream runs through the entire cave. Visitors view the cave by boat.
 |
| Penn's Cave House was built in 1885. It was used as a guest house for cave visitors until some time between 1960 and 1980. It became a private residence in 1980. Besides the cave, there are several other family friendly entertainment options on the grounds. Each of these other options has an entrance fee, so all sorts of combination tickets are available in a range of prices. The website lays it all out: http://pennscave.com/ |
 |
| This is the entry to the cave. The boats are custom made and powered by extremely quiet electric motors. There are 48 steps down to the boats. The cave is about 1300 feet long and the roof is up to 55 feet above the water level. |
 |
| We picked up some new cave facts on this trip. Fact #1 - Caves are the safest place to be during an earthquake. They simply do not crack. Fact #2 - The temperature in caves is not 55° all over the world. The constant temperature of a particular cave will be an average of that region's summer high and winter low. With a possible range of temperatures from 0° to 100° in Pennsylvania, Penn's Cave remains at 50°-52°. A cave in beastly hot Arizona might have a temperature of around 60° if the outside air temperatures are between 0° and 120° during the year. |
 |
| This cave had limestone formations, but they were not as impressive as those found in other caves we visited. |
 |
A Baby Stalactite
At the risk of sounding like The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper, I present Cave Fact #3: Stalactites first form as straws. The lime in dripping water forms a straw. Water drips through the inside of the straw until, at some point the bottom of the straw becomes plugged with lime deposits. Then water drips down the outside of the straw, making the formation thicker and longer as time passes. |
 |
The Exit
We saw ducks swimming into the cave as we left. We made a U-turn and returned through the cave to the boat dock. The tour takes about one hour. |
No comments:
Post a Comment