As we entered what appeared to be a dragon’s cave in the side of a hill, I saw that the cave itself is very “American-style” accessible. Each chamber is brightened by colored lights strategically and aesthetically placed by the Light Masters who specialize in placing light systems in the rare caves. Here and there we saw branches off of the main trail. These smaller trails appear to be only a foot or two wide and short and are a part of the Crawling Tour of the cave. We passed the Elephant Head, a cluster of stalactites named for its shape. Our guided pointed out several types of rock formations including Draperies hanging off the ceiling, the almost transparent strips of Cave Bacon, Soda Straws, and Cave Popcorn. The power of suggestion and the fact that food is not allowed on the tour reminds us all that we are hungry.
When we arrived at the last chamber we all stood in awe, gaping up at the roof of the cavern. The Penny Ceiling gleamed aboves us like the night sky full of stellar constellations. Our guide told us that the glints of light above are actually pennies and other coins tossed up into the sticky black mud seeping out of the rocks above. As we threw pennies up over our heads hoping they would bring us good luck by adhering to the ceiling, our guide cautioned us to be careful. He told us a story about a tourist who accidently threw his wedding ring up and it stuck (they had to get a ladder to get it down for him). Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, none of my pennies stuck.
At the end of the tour, just before returning to the surface there is a rock that everyone is allowed to touch near a small underground lake. While the rest of the group took turns touching the stone, I looked into the underground lake and it gave me a very “Lord of the Rings-ish” feeling. The entire cavern was reflected in the mirror-like surface of the water, making it difficult to determine where reality ends and illusion begins. The reflection in the crystal clear water was beautiful and endless, almost reflecting another dimension.
After returning to the surface and meeting up with my husband, we (my daugher, my husband, I) went on a second tour. This excursion was a 40 minute circuit of the Crystal Palace. It is on this hike that we encountered Marengo Cave’s famous waterfall and the original entrance where the two children, Blanche and her younger brother, Orris, discovered the cave in 1883. This discovery was dramatized as a shadow puppet play on the wall of the cave next to the “original” entrance. To demonstrate the total darkness found deep under the earth, our guide switched off all the lights and lit a single candle. After our eyes had adjusted somewhat, the candle was blown out and we were enveloped in darkness. As we stood in the pitch black cave, our guide explained that if we were subjected to the darkness for 6 weeks most of us would lose our sight.
The cavern known as The Crystal Palace is located under the local cemetery and it is a large rock chamber filled with many of the formations we had seen along both tours. After giving us the basic background information, our guide adjusted several controls on the lighting board and the chamber was slowly flooded with light. The experience was very unique. As I stood looking up at the beautiful stone formations, I thought about my history, the end of life as I know it, and about the people placed for their eternal rest in the cemetery above my head. I felt grateful for my husband, our children, the two stinking dogs waiting for me up there in the world, and for the things that I have seen and experienced in my life that I could never have imagined even existed. I thought about what comes after death. I thought about Heaven and imagined it being just like the Crystal Palace: it has been here all along but we could not see the beauty of it without the light. It is very hard to go back to the chaos of the outside world when you have finally found an inner peace, yet I still find myself rushing up the steps into the light thinking, “I have to go back, go back to the surface.”
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