Going Back Down - Day 2 at Mammoth Cave

My second tour at Mammoth Cave was the 9:30 a.m. "Domes and Dripstones" tour, which goes through a larger section of cave formations. This also covered the main section that I would have seen on my tour last night - I still got to see it, just didn't get to use my flash.

I got there in plenty of time, so went back into the visitor center to take a few more pictures that I regretted not taking yesterday.

I'm actually going to transcribe the first sign, which turned out quite blurry for some reason.

"THE WORLD'S LONGEST CAVE

Welcome to Mammoth Cave National Park.

With over 400 miles of surveyed passages, the Mammoth Cave landscape shelters a long and complex underground labyrinth. The mysteries of this amazing natural laboratory have inspired and sustained human discovery for thousands of years.

This cave system is truly one of the natural wonders of the world. You are invited to explore the underground grandeur of Mammoth Cave National Park!

The railing continues off into the distance...

Going Underground at Mammoth Cave

Among other things, I have been planning for a while to make a trip to Mammoth Cave National Park, which is only a couple of hours' drive away. I have been researching it, comparing the descriptions of the different cave tours, and I finally committed to going this week! I actually left after work Sunday so that I could make the drive, get to the motel and already be just a few miles away and be able to take an earlier tour. I was hoping to do one in the morning and a second one in the evening, but the later tour was fully booked by the time I went to make a reservation online. Still, it worked out pretty well.

The drive out here was beautiful, and I managed not to get lost. The directions I wrote out for myself were accurate, and all the roads were where they were supposed to be! I stopped for supper a little more than halfway there, to give myself a break from driving - since I could tell it was going to get dark before I got there anyway.

This morning I got up and made it out to Mammoth in plenty of time - it was only a few miles away. The tour was to start at 11:30 so I had plenty of time to look around in the visitor center.

A monster or a king?

There was an enormous moth on the porch of the visitor center this morning. Unlike the graceful luna moth, this looked more like a muppet, covered with bright orange and yellow fluff! It did not move at all, so we kept pointing it out to visitors as they were coming and going.

I've seen some unusual moths this summer, but this one looked truly alien. When I put in a google search for "big orange moth", it was the first thing on the list. I was a little surprised to see the name - "Regal Moth", or "Royal Walnut Moth". I guess all that fuzz is actually a crown!

This is approximately life size.

Something Big Has Been Here

There is a healthy population of black bears in the Big South Fork. For the most part they don't cause problems in the park - we make sure all campers know to lock up their food when they're not around, and to use the bear-proof trash cans. Because the dorm is also park property, we also have the same bear-proof trash cans.

Those were tested recently.

One of the maintenance people came in the visitor center the other day and was talking with us, and mentioned to me that there was a bear print on the back of the trash can at the dorm - they noticed it when they came to collect the trash. When I got home I made sure to check it out.

What is THAT on the wall?!

As I was walking toward the visitor center today I was vaguely aware that there was something on the wall above the door. I barely registered it - but then I had to go back and look, because what in the world would be that size, shape and color, just perching above the door?!

Luna Moth

Because this Luna Moth chose to perch on the back window of the visitor center, I was able to get a view of its underside as well as the usual view!

That circle on the left wing is actually the reflection of my camera lens.

A little bit larger than life - but only just a little.

So furry!

Scenic Drive through the Little Smoky Mountains

I’ve decided I won’t be doing much hiking for a while. I missed a couple of weeks because it kept raining, but the main thing is the heat! I was originally going to hike this week along the Angel Falls Rapids trail – now that the river level is back down! – but I checked the weather forecast and saw that it was going to be 80°F when I started! That’s not even including the heat index, which I do need to consider, because it is HUMID here. This week especially it’s been absolutely steamy out. I know perfectly well I would be overheated and miserable and not enjoy myself, and I would not WANT to hike four miles, especially on a day when even getting up early would make no difference!

Okay, apparently I am feeling a little defensive about this. Let’s just say that most of the hiking will be put on hold until it’s getting into fall.  

So, today I went for a long scenic drive in place of a hike. I drove out to the west side of the park, then drove up north on 154. This is the way we went that first time out to Twin Arches, when we missed the turn and kept going. I remember thinking at the time – as we realized we needed to turn around! – that it was a very pretty drive. I continued up and around, driving northeast into Daniel Boone National Forest, which borders Big South Fork to the north. It was a gravel road but in good condition, with just a few potholes, not surprising considering the torrential rains we had last week!  

There were flowers all along the road, and after a few minutes I had a revelation – I should stop and take pictures of them! I hadn’t seen any cars even before I turned onto the gravel road, and didn’t expect to see any now. I was driving slowly anyway, because of the gravel and the winding nature of the road, and so I was able to stop whenever I spotted a flower or a view that needed to be captured. I had the air conditioner on, but not all the way cold so that it wouldn’t be as hard getting out to take pictures. (Also if it was too cold my glasses would fog up. That’s how humid it is!) 

An Unexpected Visitor

This morning, a short while after we opened, a few visitors came in and asked if we knew about the snake in front of the restroom. We did not! Which is amazing, since we most likely walked right past it when we opened up in the morning! It was a Gray Rat Snake, quite possibly the same one we chased away from the parking lot back in May... I got to use the Snake Stick to gently remove him from a place people do NOT want snakes to be in (the restroom!) and transfer him to the edge of the woods, after which he left the scene very quickly.

 

Blackberries

Back when I walked the Sunset Rim trail, I noticed a spot with a LOT of blackberry bushes. It was just a short way into the trail. Better yet, it was a cleared area with bushes all around the edges, not just a thicket! I headed out there with a couple of quart-sized yogurt containers, which make great berry buckets. I didn't get out as early as I meant to, so it was getting a little hot, but it was worth it - I got just about a quart. I could have easily gotten more without even having to push through the bushes, but once I got that much it looked like enough.

Pollinator Paradise

There is a patch of bee balm planted outside the visitor center, and it has been of much interest to a whole horde of pollinators - mostly insects, but I've seen a goldfinch on it once or twice (perhaps for the insects) and almost every time I look out the window I catch a glimpse of a hummingbird! (We suspect there is a nest in the tree nearby, but haven't spotted it yet.) The flowers are big, bold, and bright - and BUSY!!!

Camouflage failure

If your survival depends on your clever disguise as a simple twig, it might be best to stay in the forest among all the other twigs. However, this Giant Walkingstick insect (Megaphasma denticrus) does show up nicely against said wall! 

There's a fungus among us!

I think I've mentioned before that the forest wildflowers are scarce at this time of year due to the shade, but that the mushrooms and other fungi are quite abundant. Today the Cumberland Mycological Society had a "Mushroom Foray" at Big South Fork, not far from the visitor center, and I got to go check it out. I actually saw several mushrooms myself, just walking along the shortcut through the woods to the picnic shelter where they were setting up*. They were just returning from their hike with armloads of specimens, and spreading them out on picnic tables to identify as many species as possible. There were some bigger piles of the tastier edibles!  I hung out for quite a while chatting and helping to pick out which types looked similar, as those more knowledgeable were beginning to fill out index cards for the ones which were definitely identified. When I finally headed back to the VC, they were still working away, so some of my coworkers headed over to see for themselves, and I returned to the front desk.

*I realize that sentence is grammatically ambiguous, but I find the image amusing.

This is one of several that I saw while walking over. I've seen these before, and they always seem to have been chewed on!

More bugs!

(Written 7/1/15, posted 6/6/17 - I don't know why this never made it out of draft status! Sorry!)

As often happens, there were a number of interesting insects around the outside of Bandy Creek Visitor Center today!

"Don't mind me, I'm just a piece of bark."

This one has soft velvet upholstery. Yet another brightly-colored moth - butterflies don't sit still like this!

This is some kind of fly. Check out those spikes!

I don't know who this guy is.