After leaving Nashville we headed out into the great unknown. In planning the trip we knew we wanted to go see some caves and weren't sure which ones we wanted to stop at. Then we found out that the second largest underground lake in the world was pretty much right on our way. So we went to the Lost Sea Adventure. It is clear why the lost sea is lost, it is completely impossible to see from the labeled overlook.
When we went into the cave it was much larger than the Ruby Falls cave. It had large chambers and many more formations. It also had a much more varied history having served as a meeting place, a salt peter mine, a night club/moonshine distillery, and fall out shelter. The lake is pretty cool. At one point it is 70' deep. We only saw about a third of the lake the rest of it is in an adjoining but continuous cavern. There were giant fish in the lake. Sadly they were normal rainbow trout (and by normal I mean abnormally large) and not the creepy cave fish. Apparently the fish were first introduced to the lake in the 70's as part of an experiment to find the outflow of the lake. They know there is one and were hoping that the fish would find it. The moral of the story is that there is a reason we use dogs as service animals and not fish; the exit still has not been located. This was another reminder that I do not want to do underwater spelunking. No one knows what lies in the the deep.
After leaving Nashville we headed out into the great unknown. In planning the trip we knew we wanted to go see some caves and weren't sure which ones we wanted to stop at. Then we found out that the second largest underground lake in the world was pretty much right on our way. So we went to the Lost Sea Adventure. It is clear why the lost sea is lost, it is completely impossible to see from the labeled overlook. 
When we went into the cave it was much larger than the Ruby Falls cave. It had large chambers and many more formations. It also had a much more varied history having served as a meeting place, a salt peter mine, a night club/moonshine distillery, and fall out shelter. The lake is pretty cool. At one point it is 70' deep. We only saw about a third of the lake the rest of it is in an adjoining but continuous cavern. There were giant fish in the lake. Sadly they were normal rainbow trout (and by normal I mean abnormally large) and not the creepy cave fish. Apparently the fish were first introduced to the lake in the 70's as part of an experiment to find the outflow of the lake. They know there is one and were hoping that the fish would find it. The moral of the story is that there is a reason we use dogs as service animals and not fish; the exit still has not been located. This was another reminder that I do not want to do underwater spelunking. No one knows what lies in the the deep. 
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ReplyDeleteAlso, the adjoining and connected cavern has only been visited once. The divers' air bubbles caused a roof cave-in (pun), so it's considered too unstable to revisit
ReplyDeleteBut there was an extended conversation about the feasibility of diving using rebreathers which don't let off bubbles.
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