The last parts of our trip were perhaps the very best part for Ava Jane. That girl is all geeked up on rocks. And what would a rock geek love more than visiting caves? Our last stop of Monday afternoon was a visit to the first cave of the trip - a smaller, privately owned cave called Crystal Caverns.
Here Ava poses outside the entrance, excited for what's in store....
We had a very earnest young man for a tour guide. As he took us into the cave he talked a lot about rock formations. Ava's most favorite rock is the geode. As we toured through the cave we made a stop in one room that had a lot of dogged tooth spores. Our guide explained that, in that room, we were basically inside a giant geode. Nerd heaven for Ava!
Should we photoshop Meghan into this picture?!
But Crystal Caverns was just a warm up for our last day in the Black Hills where we visited Jewel Cave, the second largest cave in the country. The scope of Jewel Cave was so massive. The trail we followed was better marked, lit and guided. We spent nearly two hours making our way through the tour. Ava, loving every.single.minute of it....
The girls....
The boys.....
After Jewel Cave we had a late lunch in Custer at a purple and pink restaurant. Yes, Lane ate here. :)
Our final destination was the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines. For nearly everyone it was just as boring as it sounds... But John and Ava loved it. As you can see from the sign in sheet....
2 comments:
We loved our tour through the caves, too! Such a neat thing to experience. I laughed out loud with your comment about Ava and John at the School of Mines...perhaps a budding geologist is on your hands.
All of your blogs are so fun; brought back many happy memories except getting lost in Jewel Cave!
Love, Gma
Post a Comment