15 Aug 2025 - BLUF, Crystal Onyx Cave and Hidden River Cave

 

BLUF:  In the military we use the phrase "Bottom Line Up Front" - BLUF.  That means getting to the point right up front then explaining it in detail later.  You've also seen me use NSTR.  Nothing Significant to Report.  So why the military acronyms?  Because I spent my entire adult life (17-60) using them and old habits are hard to break.  There are a few hundred more that come to mind but we will leave it with that for now.    

So today we took in two more local Kentucky caves.  In the morning we visited the Crystal Onxy Cave and the afternoon we visited the Hidden River Cave.  That makes four we have visited all together.  Each one is unique. Before we describe today's visits, I must say that (drum roll) my #1 pick is the Crystal Onyx Cave because you are so "up close and personal" with the stalactites and stalagmites.  It was just awesome!  #2 was the Diamond Caverns we saw yesterday,  #3 and #4 were pretty much a draw between the Hidden River Cave today and the Mammoth Cave National Park yesterday.  Now we only saw one of the many Mammoth Cave tours so that is probably a bit unfair.  Had we known what we know now we likely would have picked a different tour there, or more than one.  They were talking :"strenuous", "hundreds of steps", etc, so I opted for one of the easier tours.  After doing the Hidden River tour today that involved 650 stairs (325 up and 325 down) it is obvious we could have done a more strenuous tour at Mammoth Cave.   That is OK.  We enjoyed the tours we did.

This morning we awoke again to a healthy puppy.  Liberty seem to be doing great.  She is sleeping well.  Her GI issues are gone and she is eating, drinking and pooping like a trooper!  Not sure what that means but all is well.  It is quite the day when we celebrate a health dog poop!  OK!  

So we pottied Liberty well, then loaded up and headed to Crystal Onyx Cave, which was only a few miles from here.  We arrived to a nearly empty  parking lot. 

School is on and tourism is subsiding.  Not a bad thing from our standpoint.  We made our way into the gift shop and paid for our tour, which would start in about 20 minutes.  We've found this part of the country is very patriotic and my admission here is free as a Veteran!  Missouri is like that as well.  

Crystal Onyx Cave has a lot of displays involving dinosaurs and UFO's in addition to their cave. There are a lot of "eccentric" displays making the place very interesting! 

Inside the gift shop there were many displays of various stones, gems, jewelry, intake manifolds and other things.  

Various intake manifolds and automotive items!

Soon our tour guide rallied us and we headed down towards the cave entrance.  

Here are a few pictures of the cave.  We were so impressed with how close we were to the stalactites and stalagmites.  Our tour guide did a great job highlighting things to look at.  A few pictures:

Stalactites in their infancy

A column or pillar

On the way out we caught this guy hanging in the background.  Anyone know what what he is called?? I was surprised Doreen did not know.

From the Crystal Onyx Cave we headed back to the campground to tend to Liberty and catch some lunch.  At about 1530 we headed out again across I-65 and then north to Horse Cave KY and Hidden River Cave and Museum.  

Inside we found an interesting museum area and a waiting room for those waiting to depart.  

Soon our tour guide gathered and we departed on the tour.  We headed out the side exit, down the stairs and into the cave.  

There are approximately 325 steps down into the cave and there return is the same, so about 650 steps up and down.   The cave used to be badly polluted with garbage and sewage.   There also used to be power generation here and some of the equipment remains..  

At the bottom there is a huge horizontal opening that extends back quite a ways.  Following our tour guide we headed back into the cave along the marked route.  

In this cave there are very few stalagmites or stalactites , but evidence of vast river flows underground, which the name implies. 

  The Hidden River Tour was interesting and definitely strenuous, but not one of my favorites.

On the way back we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant  and had a great dinner with margaritas! 

  Tomorrow we will visit an Amish market and then head down to Bowling Green and the Corvette Museum.