|
By Bob Hill bhill@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal - Sunday, February 17, 2008
www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/FEATURES05/802170353/1010/FEATURES
OLIVE HILL, Ky. -- The most expected moment in any commercial cave tour comes when the guide -- after first warning all subterranean trekkers it's about to get real dark -- flips off the electric lights.
And so it went in Carter Caves State Resort Park a few weeks ago as our guide, Kenny McCoy, issued the standard "lights out" warning somewhere in the far reaches of Cascade Cave.
McCoy has been quietly leading people around in the dark for almost 40 years. He's as lean as he is laconic; a joke-telling cross between Jim Nabors, your Uncle Wilbur and a devoted high school geology teacher.
McCoy set the stage for total darkness by picking up a tiny pebble and holding it aloft for all to see. He said he would drop the pebble to the rock floor after the lights went out; we would be astounded how loud it would sound as our hearing improved in the dark.
The lights went out. You could almost feel the 30 cavers lean forward in obedient anticipation. We waited … and waited … and waited … and then McCoy slammed his foot into the ground as we all erupted in laughter.
"OK," he said as we waited in the blackness for his next move, "all you folks who want the lights turned on raise your left hand."
So it went for an enjoyable weekend at Carter Caves -- a somewhat remote Kentucky resort that gives you a mountain-stream taste of the Smoky Mountains without that drive to east Tennessee or having to endure the retail excesses of Gatlinburg or Dollywood.
Toss in a half-dozen caves opened at various times during the season, an underground lake, 26 miles of good hiking trails, three natural stone bridges -- one 90 feet high and 120 feet across -- and you've got plenty to see an easy three hours east of Louisville, just off Interstate 64 between Morehead and Ashland.
If it's creature comforts you seek, Carter Caves also has a nine-hole golf course, tennis court, horse stables, canoe trips on its lake, campgrounds, a central lodge and modern, two-bedroom cottages equipped with full kitchens, microwaves and cable TV.
But it's the caves that make it so special. Cascade is the largest. It comes with rock-carved cathedral room, a reflecting pool, a 30-foot underground waterfall and the Dance Hall, a room so large it was used as a dance hall when the cave was in private hands before Kentucky took it over in 1946.
The other commercial favorite is X-Cave, so named because its two major passageways meet about in the middle. Its hallways are more upright and narrow, but still easily traveled; there are no claustrophobic moments in either cave.
The X-Cave offers the Great Chandelier -- a large gathering of stalactites -- along with formations such as the Giant Turkey, the Pipe Organ and Headache Rock. The latter might require a nodding of the head, but thousands of men, women and children make it every year.
If your interests in caving run a little deeper, Carter Caves also hosts something called a Crawlathon, an annual gathering of almost 650 people who enjoy roaming around below ground, often in cold, wet, muddy and very narrow passageways.
The 27th annual such event was in full crawl on the late January weekend we visited. Whole families were taking lessons in beginning caving, rappelling, photography, cave mapping and geomorphology.
More than 100 cave trips were offered. Experts led cavers through noncommercial places like Bat Cave -- Batmobile not included -- Sandy Cave, Horn Hollow and Rimstone. They wore knee pads, head lamps and waterproof clothing. They crawled back to the lodge at night covered in mud and dirt and some sort of existential happiness.
All that -- and a hot shower too.
|
|
||
|
||
|
|