Cave-in-Rock.....

Cave-in-Rock is a fascinating place full of history! It was first noted in 1729 by M. de Lery of France and called caverne dans Le Roc. After the Revolutionary War it became a lair for outlaws, bandits, and river pirates along the Ohio River. One of the more notorious was Samuel Mason who was in Washington's army, but later used this cave to lure unsuspecting travelers and rob them. If you ever saw the movie "How The West Was Won", this cave was used in a scene depicting exactly that sort of activity. There is more history at this website. You start in a park on top of the cliffs over looking the Ohio. The view is beautiful.
Looking down through a crack at the beach below.

Some nice steep steps to take down to the cave trail.

After a short trail walk along the edge of the river with interesting cliffs to look at, you round the corner to the cave opening....

The cave is 55 feet wide and looks like a big hole in the cliff.

Looking back towards the back of the cave. This is not a series of tunnels, but just one very large cave worn in the limestone by the river.

Looking up at the ceiling.

In the center of the cave is an slit in the ceiling.....I'm looking up at it, but it was hard to photograph. There is a place outside to look down and we forgot to do that.

Standing in the cave looking out towards the river.

Standing in the entrance to the cave, if you look up there is graffiti dating back to 1913. The ceiling is about 20 feet over my head, so I was wondering how they did that! My sister-in-law looked this up and there was a large flood back then and the water level would have been high enough for someone to come in a boat and reach the ceiling. There was other graffiti at the same level and date.

Mike and Melissa studying the graffiti.

This cave is hollowed out of limestone. This is the wall in the opening.

Walking back out I was looking at the pock-marked wall of the rocks.

And of course there was the long way back to the top! Groan! This was a different set of steps and more shallow then the ones we came down. We saw a family with young boys who went up and down several times in the time we were there. If only we could figure out how to harness the energy of young kids.....the world would not have an energy crisis!

Hey....I even found a squirrel! A grey squirrel busy digging in the hillside and ignoring us.

Cave-in-Rock has a small car ferry that takes you from Illinois over to the Kentucky side of the river, so we decided it would be fun to go back that way.

I tried to see the cave from the ferry, but it is around the corner of those rocks on the right side of the photo. You can see where the trail bends.

The ferry coming into the dock to pick us up.

This is about how many cars were on it each trip we saw....4-5.

Had to include this shot as we near the shore.....I didn't realize I had taken my own photo in the mirror until I got home!
The drive home on the Kentucky side was very pretty with lots of farms with lots of horses, cows, sheep, goats. Would love to have had some photos, but we started our drive at 9AM and it was now 5PM and we were all tired. Maybe another day, we will go back the Kentucky route again. There is certainly a lot more to go see in the Shawnee National Forest! On the far side of the state there are some nice lakes I would like to visit.

SkyWatch Friday.....Iron Furnace to Elizabethtown

It's SkyWatch Friday time and I have two sky shots for today. This is the sky over the Iron Furnace in southern Illinois.
And the sky as we approach the opening to Cave-in-Rock on the Ohio River.
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Going briefly back to Garden of the Gods, here are 3 of Mike's photos.
He got a better shot of the black butterfly, but I still don't know what it is :-)
He also got one of the little white ones.....on the flower on the left....it has yellow wing tips.

Does this look like a gorilla face to you??? We had fun giving names to the rock formations.

Leaving Garden of the Gods we headed along a winding road through the forest to the Iron Furnace.

We crossed several little creeks. This area is sparsely populated and there was still much evidence of the big ice storm in February. In one area, the power lines were still down! The road to Tower Rock was so full of debris, you could barely drive in.

The Illinois Iron Furnace....now part of a park and picnic area. I used this shot to give an idea of the size of this thing. This is the way they used to smelt iron from iron ore.

Small opening on this end.....

.....larger opening on the other end that you could walk into.

I could just barely see the brickwork at the top through this slot.

I found a lovely little Chipping Sparrow sitting among the dandelions and violets.

There were 2-3 flitting around between the flowers and the trees.

A small waterfall we passed on the road to Elizabethtown.

Elizabethtown is one of many small river towns along the Ohio. This is the historic Rose Hotel....oldest operating hotel in Illinois....built in 1812. There are several B&B's in the area and we may have to come back and stay here! We ate lunch in this town before heading to Cave-in-Rock. I will save the cave for tomorrow because I have so many shots :-)

Garden of the Gods....Southern Illinois

We spent Wednesday visiting the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois. It basically covers the entire bottom half of the state so we barely got to any of it. We went to 3 popular spots that are about a 70 mile drive away.....Garden of the Gods, the Iron Furnace, and Cave-in-Rock. I will have to split this post into a couple of days. I'll warn you ahead of time that I saw lots of birds and animals, but mostly from the car and with no photos. This was more of a geology lesson then anything else. The road between Mt. Vernon and the Wabash River is lined with Redbud trees that are all in bloom right now. I had to take at least one photo from the car window to try to show how it looks.
Everywhere there are fields covered with purple flowers. I believe they are Henbit, but will not swear to it. It is an astonishing sight to see all that purple everywhere!

A closer look

We went to Garden of the Gods first because we have been there before and wanted to show it to our niece who was along.

There is a 1/4 mile trail winding through the rocks and trees.....this is one of the narrowest points.

The rock formations are amazing and I am trying hard to choose the most interesting ones. This is all sandstone that was formed over the last several million years, worn away by water, wind, weather conditions. I think these rounded towers are fascinating.

It seemed like every surface is covered with swirls or pits or markings of some sort.

Sort of like the rock formations out west but with trees. In the summer and fall this area is gorgeous.

An opening with water seepage.

I'm showing this sign to explain these, since I would never get it right. The rocks in questions are below.

Looks a lot like gnarly tree bark.

Many of the rocks have relatively smooth tops, with impressions like this that catch water.

Lots of lichen covered rocks mixed in.

Laura spotted this lizard. I have no idea what kind....sort of prehistoric looking in my opinion.

Camel Rock....the most famous rock formation in the area and I know that people used to climb out on it and that some have fallen. Better to view the camel from a distance.

I like the twisted roots finding their way between the rocks.

A very dark butterfly that I didn't get a good photo of, but at least it is a "critter".

Who's going to win here...the rock or the tree? Looks like the tree is chomping down on that rock.

One last rock formation.
Most of the birds I saw were the same ones I see at home...cardinals, robins, bluejay, red wing blackbirds. We saw dozens of Turkey Vultures throughout the day, but I gave up on trying to take their photos as they soared overhead. I saw at least 3 hawks on the wires coming over. A grey squirrel or two. Some other tiny white butterflies.

Tomorrow we move on to the Illinois Iron Furnace and Cave-in-Rock.

Watery Wednesday.....

I certainly had a "Watery" Tuesday, so that gives me plenty of photos for Wednesday :-)

It rained all day yesterday. Lots of "April showers" a day early. The Cardinal in front of a puddle reflecting the new spring growth.
Looking across the lake in the rain to the neighbor's lovely daffodils.

Puddles......lots of puddles!

Puddles make nice mirrors for whatever is around, but I didn't want to get outside in the rain to take the photos.

Dove wading through the puddles.

Rain dripping from everything! Can you see the White Throated Sparrow?

A wet Robin posing in the tree.

The Cardinal didn't seem to mind the wet seeds too much.

A Purple Finch showed up.......

......with the Mrs. as well.

Hairy Woodpecker having some soggy suet.

Lots of molting Goldfinches.

And a very unhappy wet squirrel who seemed to be more hungry then usual....I think it is a female. Maybe feeding young? She was hitting every feeding spot she could find.

Today is suppose to be nice and sunny, so we are heading out for the whole day. Will check blogs later if I hope!

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