Minnetonka Cave

For Labor Day, we decided to go up to Bear Lake and visit the Minnetonka Cave.  It was discovered by a man, by the name of Arnell while he was out hunting.  I think he just happened to pause in the area and felt a cold breeze coming out of the mountain and found the cave.  Its actually kind of cool, cause Thomas's sister married a decendent of the the discoverer.  Anyway, the cave is so amazinga and stays at 44 degrees year round, so in the winter, you would feel a "warm" breeze coming out of the hole.  Anyway, we headed up Sunday night and stayed at Thomas's brother's cabin which has an amazing view of the lake.

This is us before we went into the cave. (Funny story: my dad was really pushing gloves and hats so we wouldn't get cold..... guess who left his on the wall behind us in this pic?)

Devin and Thomas being funny at the entrance of the cave

 These used to go to the ceiling, but the cave wasn't always maintained by the park service, it was open to the public to do what they wanted and they broke a lot of the formations.  The dark stripes on the big one is where they glued the pieces back together, or as many as they could find. Sad huh!

 I think these are called the sisters.  They are huge!

 Stalagtites becasue they hold tight to the ceiling....

 Kermit the frog's Castle (the light makes it green, but it still looks like a castle)

 This is called bacon.  I think they said this is the biggest one..... in the cave? U.S.? can't remember for sure.

This is hard to see, but the two big stalagtites are hollow!  That is how they all are. 

 The middle formation is the one i was trying to get.  It looks like a bunch of gold coins stacked on each other.

 "I almost hit my head!"

 I didn't almost hit my head :)

This was the bottom of the stairway to heaven.... so that means we are in.......(let the red lighting clue you in)

This is the one formation they allow people to touch.  It is hard as stone but smooth as marble...... so amazing!  Thomas was trying to take it with him :) 

This is a hard pic to see because our camera sucks in poorly lit places, without the flash is blurry and with it, the picture is black, but this is looking down on people and formations below me.

This was a weird formation, looks like a cross between an owl and the monkey on Pirates.  I couldn't ever get a clear pic of it....I can't remember what they called it either. 

Wooo hooo!

 Light at the end of the tunnel! So much that you can't really see Thomas, but he is there.

Last pic of the cave.

 This was the little boardwalk taht took you back to the cave entrance.  Really short and easy compared to the hike we will do when we hike Timp. Caves (next post)

 It was my mom's first time to Bear Lake so we took her to the lake, but it was cloudy, windy and COLD!. That didn't stop Thomas, Devin, and my dad from wading way out there tho!

 Torie and my mom stayed on the beach.....doesn't look quite like a beach pic should look like huh....

 Proof that I went into the water!!!! ha ha ha.

 This little guy landed on my mom's shirt and stayed there for a long time!  Just as content as could be.

 I love the colors in this pic, but more that it attests to how high the lake is this year.  Those trees are not usually in water, in fact the water is usually quite a ways out from these trees.  There wasn't any beach  at Bear Lake this year. 

Thanks to Johnny and Trisha for letting us use your cabin and to dad for coming up with the idea.  We loved it!