Always Good News

I’ve been wanting to check out Bluff Dwellers Cavern for a while.  I like caves, and it’s a cave.  You figure it out.  

The problem has been that it’s in Noel, which is an hour away.  The distance, and the fact that I felt like a goof for going to this thing by myself, formed a prohibitive combination.  Eventually, though, I thought “who really gives a crap,” and decided to go.  It was so worth it.

Everyone there was super friendly.  It was a small operation, but Brent, the guide, was extremely nice and knowledgeable.  I had a bunch of questions, and he gladly answered them all.  Afterward, he even told me where to find several wild caves in the area that are accessible to anyone.  I have to do that.

The tour began with an incredibly corny look at several artifacts recovered from the site.  The artifacts themselves weren’t corny, but the presentation was.  At that point, I was smiling and laughing on the inside, because I expected the cave to be kind of lame.  It was still fun, but it wasn’t that impressive.  Then we went to the “museum,” which was just a collection of a bunch of antiques and artifacts, some of which were found in the area.  I really didn’t expect anything good after seeing the museum.  There were a few cool things, though, like some Paleo Indian skulls recovered from the cave from about 7,000 years ago.

After all this hoopla we entered the cave.  Now is a good time to mention that the only people in the tour were me and one family of four.  The family included two little boys that were really cute and funny, and not at all annoying like I half expected them to be.

As soon as we got started inside the cave, I felt much better about the tour.  The cave itself was awesome.  The only other show cave I’ve been to is Marvel Cave in Silver Dollar City.  Bluff Dwellers Cavern isn’t as large or quite as grand as Marvel Cave, but in some ways it was cooler.  All the features were right there in front of me, and I got to photograph lots of cave wildlife from close enough that I could have easily touched it with my hand.  It was also nice to be in a small group instead of a crowd like in Marvel Cave.

Overall, the tour was very professional, and it took about an hour.  It was a great way to spend an afternoon, and I highly recommend it.

Caves are one of those things that you just can’t appreciate in pictures.  I took dozens, but most of them are pretty lame.  You really have to see it with your own eyes.  Here’s a cool cave salamander, though.