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This one is called Niagara Cave. Caves have 3 kinds of names: The word "Crystal", Some sort of crazy exaggeration, or a tedious reference to a location.  Last week was a Crystal Cave. This week was an Exaggeration Cave.  The waterfall therein was quite impressive for a cave, but certainly no Niagara.  I suppose if it was a real Niagara it wouldn't be a cave as the water would have torn the limestone roof asunder.  Niagara Cave is another private cave, and like Crystal Cave, it has been through some significant human modification. But this cave outshines anything that has been done to it by man, and reveals one of the most beautiful underground landscapes I've seen. As soon as you descend below the modest gift shop the  golden-tan limestone surrounds you with soft, water-sculpted shapes, all remnants of an underground waterway, carved like the slot canyons of Utah.  

Right away the hight of the cave impresses - though Carlsbad is much higher (so high, in fact, you can't see the ceiling) this cave is strategically lighted to emphasize the tall, scalloped spaces. 

 

The Niagara Falls is a small waterfall that drops over one of these tall spaces about 60 feet to the bottom. While visitors are not permitted to stand at its bottom, which is the most common view seen in brochures, we were able to look over the edge at the small but steady stream plunging into the darkness below.  My camera had a hard time capturing the context of the falls in the strange space.  After the waterfall comes the bulk of the cave.  As I said, it's like a slot canyon underground, except it goes on, and on, for at least a half a mile, down straight passageways with 50 foot cielings. Shapes carved by ancient waterflows leave sculpted shadows. 

Walking in this cave is exactly like walking through your own municipal water table, drained of water.  And there is nowhere to get lost: The entire cave had only 5 or six alternate passageways, most very short. The main waterway provided almost then entire cave. Very different than my Oregon Caves, where he seepage of carbonic acid from the surface rain and the cold waters of cave creek riddled the marble with passageways in every direction.  Getting lost at Oregon Caves was a real possibility, and our tours were small to keep track of the guests. At Niagara, the cave has so few possibilities for error, the tourists are sent out of the deepest part of the cave on their own, without so much as a guide. 

 

Calcite formations are not this cave's strong point. While they are drastically more impressive than Crystal Cave in Wisconsin, that's not saying much. In this case, there is one room at the end with an impressive display of draperies, and that's about it. But this cave isn't about formations - the reason it's not great for formations is that it has recently been full of flowing water, and that water is what created the beauty that exists underground today.   A glimpse of the draperies - formed  in an area that was filled with water in a much more distant time - reminded me a bit of Oregon. A bit more cave bacon this time, seen in the picture to the right. But it's still a different landscape, under a cornfield rather than an alpine mountaintop, and Niagara is one of the most calming and "zen" like places I've been in a long time. Nearby Harmony has a thriving and growing Amish community - when visiting this cave it's wise to combine with a visit to an Amish farm. We didn't plan ahead, though, and spent part of our trip touring around Iowa, seeing the last remnants of summer on the Mississppi. So some more nature photography/essays are coming your way, first from Iowa, then from an old-growth maple forest here in the twin cities at the peak of fall color. Both of those in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!