Lewis & Clark Caves and Caverns

Andrew is ready to go on our trip. He has his "gear." Yesterday we decided to go to the Lewis & Clark Caves. It was tons of fun--and oh so much cooler inside than outside. If you have never been, the first part of the tour is a 20 minute walk uphill to the mouth of the cavern. The hike isn't too bad--a little challenging for six and half year olds who want you to drag them the whole way until they realize they can run instead of walk up the mountain--jeesh, why didn't we think of that before. Walking is too slow and boring and takes too much time. Anyway, the hike was fine, the heat wasn't the most pleasant but do-able. We waited at the mouth of the cave for our guide who must have ran most of the way. He was a very cheerful individual who had paid his dues with over 32 years of elementary school teaching--(so of course nothing in this man's life would ever phase him again.) The first two caverns were bat homes, so we couldn't take pictures, but after that it was awesome. During Roosevelt's New Deal program men came and cut out steps and connected caverns and smoothed out walkways for tourists, so there was a definite pathway the whole way 300 feet down. Our guide, who was a very cheerful man as I said, joked (mostly badly) the whole way and had about six young children act as tour guides pointing flashlights at interesting formations as the rest of the people walked past. Andrew was one of those and he was a very good and well informed spelunker guide. Andrew can be a very enthusiastic child and I would say if nothing else crops up in the future, he could do the whole tour guide thing--what a natural. He answered questions-even if he didn't know what he was talking about, knew the names of each interesting point of view and was friendly and readily able to brush of touristy sarcasm like a natural. He had a great time and went from nearly ready to turn back because of the steep stairs to running down the stairs looking for his next guide opportunity. After our caving adventure we also drove down through Yellowstone and stopped at Old Faithful. Every few minutes the steaming geyser would belch or burble or something and Andrew would yell (very loudly and annoyingly after the ninth or tenth time) "There she blows!! or There she goes!! Awww when's it going to go off. I'm tired!! I'm hot.! Look over there, that one's going off!! We should have gone over Theeeerrre!!"
You know the drill. We sat by some Russian Americans and chatted with them a bit, and they told us they had nearly ran right into a Grizzly in Glacier Park just a few days ago. They were very nice and were delighted to distract Andrew for us.

All in all, a very fun trip. As close to the center of the Earth as we are likely to get this year at least. Quake Lake