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!

Upper Mid-West Summer Trip - By-the-Numbers [June 28 – August 4, 2016]

Our first view of the Arch as we crossed the Mississippi in the rain heading West (Go West young man)

This was a special trip for us in many ways.  We were able to spend a week with our marvelous granddaughter as we explored South Dakota.  We enjoyed a visit with a delightful cousin and learned more about our family while we were in South Dakota.  We went to the Northernmost Point in the Lower 48 at Angle Inlet, MN. We've now been to the Eastern, Southern and Northern-most points!  (Yes, we are map geeks.)

We stopped, rested, and did laundry at our daughter Marie’s house 4 times during the trip.  We generally don’t get to spend a lot of time with Marie, Dean and Marina, so it was very special for us to be part of their lives off and on for the month of July.  We really appreciate that they kept a bed made for us.

Family 4th of July in Minneapolis

We had a pleasant surprise on the trip home.  We stopped over one night in Fort Wayne Indiana at the city run Johnny Appleseed Campground.  John Chapman’s (a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed) grave was on the hill just behind the campground.  Apparently, he lived in Fort Wayne for the last years of his life, and is buried there.  We just had to pay the grave site a visit.

Johnny Appleseed gravestone

So, here is our trip by-the-numbers:

5,753  miles (our longest trip, yet!)

38       days

20       places stayed (11 private campgrounds [1 twice], 4 municipal campgrounds,
           3 state parks, 2 relatives [1 - 3 times])

8         National Parks, Memorials, Monuments and Scenic Trails (Happy 100^th Birthday NPS!)

13       States and 1 Province visited

3         new States and 1 new Province visited

2         caves visited

2         kayak paddles

2         lighthouses

49° 20’ 43” N Latitude, 95° 03’ 46” W Longitude - northernmost latitude visited

In honor of the 100^th birthday of the National Park Service, we are including photos here from the 8 NPS sites that we visited.

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch), MO

Effigy Mounds National Monument (Big Bear), IA

Badlands National Park, SD

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial (our first look from the road), SD

Wind Cave National Park (Boxwork), SD

Grand Portage National Monument (Birch bark canoes), MN

Isle Royale National Park, MI

Ice Age National Scenic Trail, WI

At Last - Lake Michigan!, Point Beach State Forest State Park, WI [July 31 – August 2, 2016]

All of the ShoreXplorers love the beach

Lovely Lake Michigan

We’ve visited Lake Superior four times over the years, and Lake Huron and Lake Erie twice.  We’ve explored all around the circumference of Lake Ontario.  Somehow, we’ve never spent time on Lake Michigan.  The Michiganers we’ve met who live near the Lake say it is the most beautiful of all the Great Lakes.  However, they caution, don’t try to visit during the summer, it is so popular with families taking vacations that you’ll never find a spot to camp.  They were right.

In some places the dune is right next to the water

In other places there is a lovely beach

As we started to plan our trip Eastward and home, we realized that we REALLY wanted to visit Lake Michigan.  We found that Point Beach State Forest State Park in Two Rivers, Wisconsin had a campsite available for Sunday and Monday nights.  Actually, we had our choice between two adjacent campsites that were available.   We chose one and someone else chose the other (we saw them through the trees).

Rawley Point Lighthouse

The dog beach on Sunday.  It was much less crowded on Monday.

The State Park is a long string bean along the shores of Lake Michigan.  It has a lighthouse and it has a dog beach.  What more could you ask for?

Looks like the ocean...

Ah yes, a beach-y afternoon

Handstands in the shallow water

The campground is a typical North Woods campground.  Pine and hardwood trees, punctuated with the occasional white birch tree.  If you walk east, you cross a large dune and find yourself on a lovely sand beach and an endless expanse of beautiful blue water.  It is just like being at the ocean except that it lacks tides and the salty smell.  The water off the beach was shallow and 70°warm.  Russ and Tiki went swimming on Sunday.  All three of us went swimming on Monday.  After 5 weeks on the road, we enjoyed some time loafing at the beach.

The round turret on the right is what remains of the old lighthouse

Another view

There has been a lighthouse at Rawley Point since 1853.  The original brick lighthouse was replaced by a steel tower in 1894.  The old brick lighthouse was cut down and roofed and made a part of the light keepers house.  The lighthouse is still in service, and is not open to visitors.  However, we had many photo opportunities to take pictures of the interesting steel structure and lovely old house.

A Marshy Swale - the wooded sections on each side are called Ridges

Along a Ridge

The park has special paths for bicycles and it seems like everyone gets around that way.  The paths run along the top of the ”Ridges”.  Back in the Ice Ages, the shoreline of Lake Michigan moved eastward.  The ancient dunes that were once along the shoreline are now inland as ridges or high places parallel to the current shoreline.  Between the ridges are “Marshy Swales” or wetlands where the lake used to be.

The Ice Age Trail - Happy B-day NPS!

The Ice Age National Scenic Trail [Happy 100^th Birthday NPS] takes you along the top of one of the Ridges.  The Ice Age Scenic Trail is a work in progress.  The intent is to create a trail along the outer edge of the last glacier that, during the last Ice Age, covered the area that we now know as the State of Wisconsin.  The trail will follow Ridges, and Moraines.  It will pass by Kettles and Glacial Lakes.  Right now there are sections of the trail waiting to be connected together.  It is a very cool idea. 

We were happy for these trail markers

Cool camp site for kayakers

We hiked several miles down the Ice Age Trail.  The hike along the top of the old dune that was now hardwood forest was lovely.  There were big, old trees, and scenic views of the marshy swales.  We came to two campsites.  One for backpackers along the Ice Age Trail.  The other was for kayakers who were paddling along the lake shoreline.  We decided to leave the bloodthirsty mosquitoes behind in the woods and returned to where we had parked our bicycles by way of the beach.

Tiki retrieving her yellow ball

Isn't this a pretty view?

Point Beach State Forest was the perfect finale for a wonderful trip.  And yes, Lake Michigan is every bit as beautiful as we were told that it would be.

Beautiful Lake Michigan