Recently my parents, my grandparents and I took a very, very long 4 hour road trip, which somehow turned into a 12 hour one. Our destination was to a very cool cave in Eastern Ontario and I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took with you guys!
The first picture is a view of the river located right next to the caves. The water from the river used to flow right through the cave. After the cave was discovered in the early 1950's, the water was pumped out back into the river and the caves became a local landmark!
The next image shows the imprint a fossil left in the cave walls (sorry it's blurry!). I forget what the name of the creature that left it there was called, and I'm sure it was something scientific that no one would remember, but I do believe the imprint dates back at least a million years (but I could be wrong).
Funny story about this picture actually. My grandma was standing in front of it when the tour guide pointed it out to the rest of the group. The guide pointed to the "fossil over there" at which point my grandpa jokingly pointed to my grandma and asked "This one?". Needless to say he's the comedian in the group.
The next image is of Stalactites, which grow downward at an extremely slow pace. The average growth rate is about 0.13 mm, or 0.0051 inches, a year. Judging by the enormous size of these puppies, I can imagine they've been around for quite some time! There were also a few Stalagmites in the cave, which grow upward, but I didn't get the chance to take any good pictures of them.
And the last picture here is a souvenir of what my mom bought me from the gift shop for being a good girl on the trip.
Caves, to me, are very fascinating. It's amazing how just water can erode some very massive rocks, and even more spectacular to see some of the paths and tunnels that were created throughout the cave.
