Friday, July 24, 2009

Cathedral Caverns Grant, Alabama

Hi all!
Well, my Step-mom Bette was here this week for a visit, and boy we sure did have a great time.
We did some real exploring around my new home and Bette was just the one to get me going!
She had me going down roads in every direction!We even found this great view and guess what? It's for sale if you're interested! We wanted to check out Cathedral Caverns since it's only about 12 miles from my house and off we went to see what we would find. Well, we were more than pleasantly surprised.
We were in AWE! The cave has quite a few "world record" categories and you can check them out at the linked site on my title. Just entering and turning around is quite a sight to behold. Looking in from the entrance.Just to prove this cave was once part of an ocean floor our guide had us look up to the ceiling, near the entrance, to see a tooth of a "meglalodon" a pre-historic shark. It was about 3 inches across.The structure above is "Goliath" the world's largest stalagmite. It measures 45' tall and 243' around! There are pools of water and it was a little frightening to find out the cave floods, and at times one of the bridges we were on has water come right up to the bottom of it. It was way up there. This is one area that floods. If you look at that spotlight above on the left, you can see the old rail where people used to walk! NO THANKS!! This was one of the old bridges, which would be completely under water since I'm photographing from the bridge that the water reaches. That's a little stream at the bottom. Here we are in one of the big rooms of the cavern. I never did find out why that hard hat is down there but where I'm standing is what would be the fourth floor of a 12 story building that could fit in that space. YIKES! The room is 200 feet wide and 792 feet long! Can you see the caveman and his "Rock" weiler?There are several stalagmite forests in the cave. This was the last one for us to see, as our trip turned around here. There will be a new "wild cave" journey you can take soon. But one of the rooms would have you squeezing though a 5 gallon pail sized hole for 5 feet. I'm not sure if that is for me. Next time I go, I will spend a lot more time inside. It was just a thrill of a lifetime to enjoy this beautiful work of nature.
More on our adventures in my next post.
Please be sure to click on my title to see the link of Cathedral Caverns!

20 comments:

Wendy said...

Those pictures are breath taking, absolutely beautiful! It's a weird coincidence, my friend was just telling about a cave in Spain I really have to see.
Thanks for sharing Eve :)

Unknown said...

Wow! What an adventure- I have never been to any of the caves in Alabama- there are several that are open for touring. I hadn't realized that they were so spectacular! Those were pretty good photos that you captured considering that you were in a cave! :) Very cool.

Maria said...

this was cool, didn't know we had anything like this in the SE

Dog Trot Farm said...

I knew you would produce some awesome photos. Reminds me of the caverns Bill and I went to in Penn. Did you see bats? Was there a body buried under that hard hat?

Anonymous said...

Cooooool.

The Giraffe Head Tree said...

Yikers, Eve!!!! I've been there and loved it. However, at the time the interior was flooded and we couldn't go inside very deeply. Suits me as I since discovered my intense claustrophobia - ickness. I mean that sincerely. That said, Cathedral Caverns is a magnificent thing to see and I'm thankful you were able to see it with someone who could actually descend into the gloom without medication. LOL!!! Wish I could see it with you BUT I'll settle for wine on a comfy sidewalk cafe in Guntersville, perhaps overlooking the glorious lake? CAN'T WAIT!!!! LOVE your post, dearie!

Shelley said...

Very beautiful and thrilling to see these cavern photos!!

DeniseinVA said...

Those are amazing sights Eve, thanks for the great tour.

kerry hawkins art and photo said...

Sounds like a great adventure. There is a cool cave like this one called Kartchner Caverns in Arizona. I loved going there

Anonymous said...

Wow, great images Evie.

Anonymous said...

Wowzer! Your photos are wonderful!

Danni said...

Caves are so cool...though they can also be creepy and unsettling - but this makes them incredibly exciting, too. We have Oregon Caves here and then we've visited Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, but yours are definitely enormous in comparison. Cool shots, Eve.

Leedra said...

Caverns are so exciting to visit. You captured it so well. The Lost Sea is close to us. It is the largest underground water. The drought we had the last two summers had it endangered, but the spring rains this year brought it back. They say the tourism is back up already. You made me want to go for a visit, it has been years since I have been.

Mary said...

Wow...what a terrific caveran! Those rooms and that stalagmite are huge! Kind of like Mammoth Cave. I like your view for sale...but I think I'll pass :-)

Jenny said...

WOW! What a stunning place Evie! Glad you're getting to see some of the local attractions! I can see the caveman I think and it looks to me like Daisy Lou's head is above the cavemans?!

Anonymous said...

What an awesome cave! Must be such a thrill to visit it!
I've seen such a cave in Greece - lots of stalagmites and some old bridges are there too. Unfortunately there are usually so many visitors there so I didn't have a chance to hear the natural sounds that can be heard inside.

Tina said...

Wow...what a place..I would love to see these caves!! and only 12 miles from you..cool! Your photos are quite good at capturing the neat features of these caves...As much as I love to visit places like this I am always glad to see daylight again!!

Eve said...

Thanks everyone!

Rural Rambler said...

Eve the lake(?) views are stunning! The cave photos are very interesting and wonderful. We have Meremac Caverns about two hours from us, we visited often in the past and did canoeing trips from there.

The prehistoric shark tooth is very cool!

Karen Gifford said...

Beautiful! Did you ever visit Howe's Caverns here in NY? I have some very similar photos of that, I'll have to send them to you...it was amazing too!!!