The Big Room Trail is the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America.
It is a 1.25 miles (2km) trail and takes about 1 ½ hours to walk it.
You will be rewarded with spectacular views, cave formations of all shapes and sizes, and a rope ladder used by explorers in 1924.
The lighting and highlight lighting that was performed in the more than 100 caves,
is outstanding as you can easily see from the dozens of photos that were taken on the visit.
These photos are treasures because of the lighting that emphasized certain areas to make the photo a pearl.
You don’t have to hunt for a great photo, there are many of them. Every time you look you see another great photo opportunity.

Drip by Drip—Stalagmite and Stalactite formation.

They all start small. The stalagmites and stalactites all began as a single drop of water.
Drip water came from the surface as rain and melted snow.
It became slightly acidic as it absorbed carbon dioxide from the air and soil.
This acidic water dissolved calcite out of the limestone as it flowed down along cracks and pores.
As fast -dripping water splashed on the floor, calcite formed thin layers around the point of impact. It piles up to form stalagmites.
The slow drip of water also forms the stalactites. Calcite in this instance starts forming layers from the ceiling down and forms resulting stalactites.
Fast drip forms the stalagmites,
Slow drip forms the stalactites.