Indian Echo Caverns: Inside View: Part4

This is the continuation of my Indian Echo Caverns posts that you can find here and here.  I love the tour guide that was assigned to us, he was very entertaining and  knows a whoiole lot about the cave.

He showed us different shapes that you can see such as this one below.  If you look closely, you can see a  crocodile's head in there.  The tour guide  told us a  made-up stoy about the crocodile which made us all  laugh.

The following photos are just different formatuins that I thought were pretty neat.  It's not a everyday thing that you get to go inside a cavern so I took lots of photos.

It's nice that they  put lighting system in  every part of the cave,  There are times that tour guide will turn off the life just to let you experience  how it is  inside during the  days when there's no light in there yet.

At the end of the tour, he took us a place where a guy lived there for years and died there but that would be another post.  Fir now, I want you to enjoy these different photos inside the cavern.

Glad we had hats that day, water are dripping and if you're not lucky, you'll get wet and it's not a good thing as it was cold inside the cavern.

Please tune in for more photos next time.

Indian Echo Caverns - Part3

As I have mentioned on part  2 of our cavern adventure, here are some of the  photos  of what you can see  inside the Indian Echo Caverns.  According to our tour guide, the Caverns were first opened to the general public in 1929, when Mr. John Bieber opened the doors to the caverns. 

 Mr. Bieber realized that many people wishing to visit the caverns might be put off by the treacherous, uneven terrain that nature created. Bieber undertook a massive commercialization process, in which all of the pathways in the caverns were made safe for travel, as well as opening up many rooms closed off because of huge mineral deposits.

 The caverns were a natural Mecca of the region, attracting thousands of visitors in its first years. However, sadly, the caverns fell upon hard times during the Great Depression, and Mr. Bieber lost ownership to the bank. 

 All was not lost, for in 1942, Mr. Edward S. Swartz, a Hershey native purchased the caverns. Today, the ownership of the caverns still remain in his family, with hundreds of thousands of visitors walking the paths of the Susquehannocks each year.

 If I were to get lost there, U would be scared especially if the  lights are off  because it  would be a total darkness inside and cold too!

 It's amazing how this natural beauty  could  make your  imagination travel to a different  time and place.  

 Seeing all of these beautiful formation  inspired my daughter to dream of becoming a geologist.

 The tour guide was very pleased when we told him about what  our daughter said and what she think she should do when she grows up.

 There are so many things that tour guide have told us including make up stories of the  different shapes of the stalactites and stalagmites

More photos to come  in the next series of photos.  Thanks for reading and for leaving your thoughts.

Indian Echo Caverns - Part2

This is the continuation of our   cavern adventure in Hummeltown, PA.  After  30 minutes of waiting for our tour, we  started  our journey by going down this steep  concrete steps going the hill with our tour guide.

Going down was easy but coming back up is a different story.  It did not bother us but a lot of people where stopping on the way up catching their breath.  

Near the cave is the Swatara Creek.  According to our  tour guide, the first visitors to Indian Echo Caverns, were most likely were the Susquehannock Indians. They lived along the Swatara creek, upon which the mouth of the caverns sits. It is currently believed that they used the caverns as a refuge during inclement weather because of the constant 52° temperature inside the caverns. The Susquehannock vanished from the area in the 1670's leaving the region around the caverns virtually unoccupied.

Then he went to tell us that the first non-Native American explorers of the caverns were most likely French fur trappers. They traveled along the rivers and creeks of the north east during the latter part of the 17th Century and into the early 18th Century. Most likely they discovered the mouth of the caverns as they traveled on the Swatara Creek. These intrepid explorers wrote about their tales in the caverns attracting more and more explorers.

That's the cavern entrance.  We have to wait for outer tours to  get done before  we finally enter.

The  tour guide was really good in what he does.  You can tell that he take pride of the knowledge that he is imparting to the tourists about the place.

Shadow Shots

It was   cold inside the cavern.  I am so glad I wore a cardigan that day.   I don't think I  would have enjoy the  tour inside if I wasn't wearing something warm.

This is just  the beginning our  exploration inside.  I will share more photos next time so please tune in.