Cathedral Caverns
The 52 week art challenge that I was participating in ended a couple of weeks ago. A few days before the end date I took a day trip with a friend and neighbor to Cathedral Caverns.
Today’s featured photograph, which was posted as my final challenge image, was taken inside the Cathedral Caverns in the state of Alabama, USA. Originally called Bats Cave, the caverns were purchased by the state of Alabama in 1987 and opened to the public for tours in 2000. They were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1972.
The opening to the cave is the largest commercial cave opening in the world at 128 feet across and 25 feet high. A little more than one mile of the 11,000 feet of mapped passages is open to the public.
This stone waterfall is actually a flowstone and stretches for 135 feet in one of the cave’s passages. Flowstones are produced when continuous sheets of water flow down the walls of a cave, dissolving minerals that are in the rock producing a flowing or waterfall effect.
The stone waterfall in this photograph is only one of many of the interesting and unique features of Cathedral Caverns.
I was able to capture several unusual stalactite and stalagmite formations as we toured the caverns. It was an interesting, though chilly, afternoon spent underground.
Click here to view a larger version of today’s image and to cruise around my art site.
