An easier entrance provides access to the cave which may be entered by those who care to do so, although it is not a part of the regular tour. Lower Cave shares honors with the Papoose Room as being the two lowest points on the underground tour. Also, they are the furthest west. Here, with the limit reached, the pathway begins its return trip.
© BY ROBERT NYMEYER
On once more, lily pads, huge boulders, and clusters of flowstone along the walls greet the visitor as he heads for Mirror Lake, a small, crystal-clear pool that is well named. On beyond is the Bottomless Pit, a dark hole with mysterious implications that received its name from the first explorers who thought the title would intrigue all who saw it. From the trail the light of a spotlight has trouble in penetrating the depths of the pit, adding to its ghostliness. Actually, the pit has a bottom some 140 feet below the rim where the visitors pass, but unlike many other attractions of the Caverns which were named by those who first saw them, the name of the Bottomless Pit has remained unchanged. Other of the Caverns' features have been renamed two or three times within the past few decades.
As the column of silent visitors marches silently along the return trail the Big Room takes on a new look. Indeed it does not appear to be the same room where the party entered slightly over an hour ago. All sense of time and direction are lost in the myriad of decoration, light and shadow, gigantic, often grotesque formations, and the serenity of this underground heaven.
Passing quietly ahead the traveler pauses at the largest "living" stalagmite within the known part of the Caverns, the Crystal Spring Dome. Generally dry, this part of the Big Cave is moist, and water, dripping slowly from the ceiling above, is still depositing its minute quantities of calcium on the mighty Crystal Spring Dome as it has been doing for countless centuries.
The Crystal Spring is perhaps 20 feet high and resembles a bushy Christmas tree laden with snow, its branches drooping under the massive white blanket. The dripping water is depositing its lime at the rate of about 2½ cubic inches a year, although this rate varies depending upon the amount of moisture descending from the ceiling above, and also upon the amount of lime contained in the water.
This constant application of moisture keeps the white, plump stalagmite glistening all the time, and the excess moisture, unable to evaporate, forms into a small pool at the base of the dome, known as Crystal Spring.
© BY ROBERT NYMEYER