OK, it really wasn’t a black hole, but that seemed like a good title for this post. Our next adventure was to the Lewis and Clark Caverns, near Three Forks, and in between Butte and Bozeman. Actually, at one point, the guide turned off the lights and it was really black! This was one of the best stops on the trip. I have included a lot of pictures here, but not so much commentary. You can find out all about the cavern on the Lewis and Clark Cavern website.

The path to the entrance is about 3/4 mile and well paved, but it seemed steep to me! (I was by far the oldest one on our tour, so maybe it was just me.)  From the entrance to the cave you can see the path we came up. Once at the entrance, the tour involves descending about 500 steps down and about 100 steps up in the cavern. That gives you an idea that getting to the entrance is equivalent to walking up a 19-story building. It is also about 5300 feet above sea level, and that alone has an affect on us sea-level dwellers.

Also, from the entrance there is a great view of the valley below. This is where Lewis and Clark traveled. The caverns are named for them, but they actually passed by them unaware of them.

The tour is about 2 hours long, and involves descending the stairs and squeezing through a few places. My big camera (and my big gut) made it a little more difficult, so a point-and-shoot camera would be better. The tour was fascinating! Our guide was good, but she is an elementary school teacher and at times sounded like one. (Can anyone tell me how bats navigate in the dark?)

We did have bats with us, and we were asked to be careful not to blind them with flashes and to be quiet around them. There weren’t many, but it was neat to watch them flying around us. They are not scary and didn’t fly too close.

It was a little difficult on a moving tour to get good shots in poor light, but the formations can speak for themselves.

This formation is named “Santa Claus” for obvious reasons!

We stayed in Butte that night, and found a pretty good pizza place with incredibly cheap pizza and beer. We didn’t think we’d be able to make it to Yellowstone on this trip, but when we were in Butte, we realized that we could do it if we left a little earlier and drove a little longer than usual. So I guess we did actually have a plan for the next morning.

0

0