Carlsbad Cavern - King's Palace Tour

The King's Palace tour, a 1.5-hour ranger-guided tour through four highly decorated chambers, departs from the underground rest area. 

You will descend to the deepest portion of the cavern open to the public, 830 feet beneath the desert surface. 

Although not as difficult as the Natural Entrance route, this 1-mile tour does require descending, and later climbing, an 8-story hill. 

Look forward to viewing a variety of cave formations including helictites, draperies, columns, and soda straws.

This was directly above our heads.  Glad none fell during our tour.

These are called "Draperies" which are in the Queens Room.

Reservations are required for the Kings Palace tour.

Rangers frequently conduct black-outs during this tour, briefly turning off all artificial lights to reveal                                              the natural darkness of the cave. Anyone got a light!

Carlsbad Caverns - Natural Entrance

Who knew there was such beauty in the middle of nowhere?  

Carlsbad Caverns is a must see place if you are near Carlsbad NM. Beneath the rugged desert, rocky slopes and deep canyons that make up Carlsbad Caverns National Park, lies an underground treasure including more than 117 known caves

Until 1932, visitors to the cavern had to walk down a switch back ramp-sidewalk that took them 750 feet  below the surface. The walk back up was tiring for a lot of visitors. In 1932 the National Park opened up a large visitor center building that contained two elevators that would take visitors to the caverns below.

While a young boy, Jim White saw what he thought was smoke bellowing in a distance.  Little did he know what he was about to discover.  

This is called the "In the Whales Mouth"

Click on the above photo to enlarge.

You can see the many holes formed where acid dissolved the rock.

This is called the "Lion's Tail."

Stalactites, stalagmites and other cave deposits made chiefly of calcite are called decorations or speleothems, 

While a young boy, Jim White explored the cavern with his homemade wire ladder.

Here you can see how over the thousand of years the formations become one.

Changes in the ambient air temperature and rainfall affect the rate of growth of speleothems, as higher temperatures increase carbon dioxide production rates within the overlying soil. Color of speleothems is determined by the trace constituents in the minerals of the formation.  

Screaming Hawk - Laurel Ridge Canopy Tour Zip Lines (August 2013)

Not sure if I accidentally deleted this post or why this was never posted to our blog but it was one of the favorite trips with the grand kids. This was their first zip lining experience.  I have combined our 2-day visit to Seven Springs, Pa.

Here we are arriving at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Somerset PA.  This is the first time Ryan and Jake have tried zip lining.  We think they are in for a real treat. 

If you are looking for a summer thrill ride the Seven Springs zip line will keep you wanting more.  Here we are about to get into our gear.  Jake weighed 84 pounds just over the minimum weight of 80 pounds for riders. 

After getting our gear on, its off for some basic training techniques.  Once complete, we are ready for our adventure to begin.

You start by having to climb 30-feet of netting called the Spiders Web to get to the first platform.  We rode 5 lines with the longest being 600-feet.  This was our spin up to tomorrows Laurel Ridge Canopy Tour. 

DAY 2 - Laurel Ridge Canopy Tour

Getting ready for a great day of fun. I feel the need for speed!

To get to the canopy, you have to ride the chair lift up the mountain. 

We were always secured by the two snap hooks you see in this photo.

We are ready for our first of fourteen rides.  Hey, Watch out for that tree! They are not lying about zipping through the canopy.

We all make it safely to our first platform some 60-80 feet above the ground.

We also had to navigate some canopy bridges along our route.

Here's Ryan soaking in the view as you take Sightseer, a 260-foot zip, before landing in Moonshine Manor.

Rattlesnake Run – 1,412-foot zip across the junction of Gunnar, Yodeler and Lost Girl slopes. Most canopy tours would consider this as the apex of their tour, but at Laurel Ridgeline Canopy Tours, it is just conditioning for the last BIG RIDE!

You can see here how high above the ground the platforms are located.

Take a peek down the barrel of the BIG RIDE – Timberline Terror, 1,500-feet of zip before landing in Seventh Heaven. 

Here's Jake showing great form.  Problem was because he only weighed 84 pounds, he did not have enough momentum to make it all the way to the platform.  He was about 20-feet short and about 150-feet off the ground.  Our guide had to come out and help pull him up to the platform.  Below are some individual photos.

Dave, Now what did they say about stopping...

Ryan, Get those knees up.

Jake, Still showing great form!

Kathy, Look out below....

We all arrived safely back at the lodge and thanked our guides for a wonderful time. 

Devil's Tower National Monument - Wyomig

We arrived early at Gillette Wyoming attending the 35th Annual Escapee's Escapade.  We decided to go see Devil's Tower National Monument with Barry and Donna, friends that we had met two years ago at an Escapee's Rally.  This photo is at a pull-out about 3-miles from the main entrance.

Here's a photo of Kathy, Donna and Barry in the parking lot.  We decided that after stopping at the visitor center we would hike the 1.3 mile trail around the monument. No two sides are alike.  From the eroded columns on the south to the smooth north side, the tower has many faces.  

 In 1906, President Roosevelt proclaimed Devil's Tower the first National Monument. He made Wyoming the home of both our first national park - Yellowstone and our first National Monument.

Although Devil's Tower has long been a prominent landmark in northeastern Wyoming, the origin of the mammoth rock obelisk remains somewhat obscure. Geologists agree that Devil's Tower formed from molten rock forced upwards from deep within the earth. Debate continues, however, as to whether the rock cooled underground or whether Devil's Tower magma reached the surface.

If you have certification and the proper equipment you can climb to the top of the monument.  If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see two climbers in their quest to reach the top.

Records of tower climbs have been kept since 1937.  Approximately 5,000 climbers come here every year from all over the world to climb on the massive columns.  Over 220 routes have been used in climbing the tower.

In the center is the flight of a Golden Eagle, one of four that we observed during our hike.  The Golden Eagle is a frequent visitor to the tower.

Devil's Tower is considered a sacred landmark by more than 20 Native American tribes. The Lakota refer to Devil's Tower as Bear Lodge, and historically used this sacred place for funerals, prayer offerings, and other ceremonies, as well as their Sun Dance ritual.  We observed several prayer blankets as well as prayer offerings hanging from tree limbs. 

The Wind Circle sculpture, which is of white marble with a black base stands an impressive 12 feet tall. The artist designed it to evoke the image of a puff of smoke from a sacred pipe.  The stone used in the sculpture and black granite base come from Italy Fantiscritti Quarry source of Michelangelo's marble.  The sculpture stone base comes from the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Barry took this photo of Kathy and I in front of the sculpture with the tower in the background. 

I took this excellent photo of Barry and Donna in front of the Wind Circle sculpture.  We all agreed that it was worth our 63-mile drive to visit Devil's Tower.  We would recommend a visit for anyone traveling this area.