Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024
Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Aquifer Tour - Wed., June 8, 2016

Today was such a fun day, I had to write about it ahead of other blogs waiting in the wings. If you've never been to Texas Hill Country you may not know about our aquifers, underground reservoirs that supply water to much of South Central Texas.

No matter the time of year, the Natural Bridge Caverns would be an awesome place to tour. However, because we have had so much rain, the aquifer has risen into the caverns, covering the trail through some of the rooms. Susan and I wanted to tour the caverns today to see the aquifer. We were not disappointed.

Coming to the entry area of the caverns, you see the Natural Bridge the caverns were named after. That's where our tour guide greeted us and told us the rules of the cave.

Heading down the trail to the cavern entrance
The Natural Bridge
Into the cave we went; down, down, down, seeing formations along the way. Our guide wasn't very good at slowing down to look at stuff so we had to take photos on the fly.


Stalactites, stalagmites, columns and soda straws.

Cave drapery
A beautiful pool
In the next photo, the formation at the top of the picture looks like a necklace. Awesome room.

In the photo below, you can see the aquifer and how the cave tour trail disappears into the water. We'll have to go back another time to go to the lower level rooms.

Aquifer up into the cave rooms

Emerald Lake says 135'. I don't know if that means the lake itself is 135' deep or if it is at a depth of 135' under the ground. Our guide didn't explain it.
Emerald Lake (135')
Emerald Lake
Flow stone waterfall
Susan M. checking out Emerald Lake
Water flowing down this section of flowstone.
Me and Susan M.
Hall of the Mountain King (looking up)
Stalagmite family
Hall of the Mountain King (looking back down)
This formation looks like a castle to me.
As we were exiting the cave, walking through the woods, the people in front of us were making a commotion about something on the ground. Can you see what the commotion was about in the pic below? Look closely.

Do you see it?
When we finished the tour, I called Bob since he had wanted to do lunch yesterday but I had my hair appointment. So Susan and I went to lunch with him at Cheddar's today. I had firecracker chicken and shrimp on a bed of rice with a side salad. Yum!

Susan and I were having so much fun we decided to see X-Men Apocalypse. Both of us enjoyed the movie, but thought Captain America: Civil War was just a bit better. If you do see X-Men be sure to stay to the very end, after the credits, when you think the screen is going black, that's when the hook for the next X-Men comes on.

Today was a great day!

5 comments:

  1. I love to tour caves. There are a lot of them in Missouri and Arkansas which are easy drives from where I live in Kansas. Doesn't sound like the guide was an informative as he/she could of been. You are looking great by the way.

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    1. We've been in lots of caves. Our tour guide looked fresh out of high school and was by far the worst tour guide we've ever had in a cave. He basically led us through the cave, no extra info at all.

      Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it after the hard work losing weight.

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  2. We missed Natural Bridge Caverns. On our list for our next visit. Beautiful photos. I thought it would be very cool inside. You two have shorts on. Guess I am wrong.

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    1. Natural Bridge is one of the prettiest caves we have seen. Definitely worth a visit. It's also the warmest cave we've ever been in. The temperature was 70 degrees with 99% humidity. That made it feel like 84-86 degrees in there. We were sweating.

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  3. Thinking of spending time in the Hill country next spring, might have to check out Natural Bridges since we like caves so much. Hope you've done Caverns of Sonora, one of our all time favorites.

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