Floating On an Underground Lake – The Lost Sea Adventure, Sweetwater, TN [September 3, 2016]

The largest underground lake in North America - The Lost Sea

There are quite a few caverns below the Great Smokey Mountains and their foothills.  Unique among them is Craighead Caverns, which have a waterfall and a 4.5 acre lake.  It is the second largest underground lake in the world, the largest in North America, and the largest open to the public anywhere.  But, I get ahead of myself.

Cave Bacon

Our original plan was to go to Homosassa, Florida to fish for scallops while snorkeling.  A tropical depression was headed to the Gulf of Mexico, so we decided to visit Leslie and Natalie in Knoxville TN while we waited to see what the storm would do.  It ended up becoming Hurricane Hermine, coming ashore North of Homosassa and devastating that area.  Our campground was flooded and closed.  The town had feet of water in the buildings.  We decided to have a Tennessee adventure instead. So, we stayed with L&N, harvested their garden, helped them make pickles and pesto, and generally enjoyed spending time with them.  We also started exploring the area around Knoxville TN.

The entry tube

Anthrodites - aren't they pretty

Half way between Knoxville and Chattanooga is The Lost Sea Adventure.  The roadside attraction also has a hillbilly “village” with several gift shops, a restaurant and an ice cream shop.  You descend down into the caverns via a yellow painted metal lined tube.  The cave has some lovely “cave bacon' formations, and stalactites and stalagmites.  The cave also claims 50% of the world’s occurrence of a pretty crystalline formation called anthodites or “cave flowers.”

One of the enormous chambers

The cave has several enormous chambers.  During the Civil War, salt peter was mined there.  During Prohibition, one chamber became the “Cavern Tavern” serving moonshine from 3 moonshine stills.  Apparently, you can hold your liquor better underground than on the surface,  so patrons would become drunker as they ascended a rickety ladder to leave  – the tavern closed after 2 months.

Pretty flow stone

Eventually, as you walk through the cavern, you hear the sound of running water, you pass a lovely waterfall, and follow a stream down to the lake – the Lost Sea.  The lake water is full of minerals and is a lovely milky blue green color.  The tour takes you out in a boat powered by an electric motor.  It is very quiet on the water.  There are no waves or currents. 

The lake - the dark shadows are fish

At some point, they stocked the lake with tagged trout to see if the trout would be caught in a stream outside the cave, and thus connect the cave with an outside body of water.  No trout were ever found outside of the lake.  Why should they leave?  They have no predators, they are fed 50 times a day as part of the tours.  They still have most of their sight, because the lights are on in the cave 12 hours a day.  I’ll be honest, they are a little creepy looking, these huge, overfed fish swarming toward the boat.  At this point, they are considered part of the attraction.  The fish don’t breed in the lake, so the lake is re-stocked every 5 years.

A date made by soot from a lantern

The Lost Sea adventure is a unique experience.  The beautiful cave chambers and the lovely lake are worth a visit.  After all, how often do you get to float on an underground lake.  Oh, and we had ice cream for lunch after we came out of the caverns.  Definitely a day well spent!