Cave State Take 3 - Meramec Caverns

Missouri may officially be the Show-Me State, but unofficially it's the Cave State. Although slightly edged out by Tennessee, we have the second most caves of any US state. Over 6000. We've toured a show cave each of the last two summers (they're perfect on those horrible Midwest summer days). This summer's cave.....

Meramec Caverns is a privately owned and operated cave less than an hour from our house.

Besides being used by Native Americans and as a saltpeter mine during the Civil war, the cave is famous for being the hideout of Jesse James and his gang. Our tour guide told us about how Jesse and his boys would lead their pursuers to the cave, but could successfully evade capture by getting into the back sections of the cave where the entrances were blocked by water. The sheriff and deputies would ride their horses inside, find a bunch of horses near what they thought was a dead-end...but no men or loot. Later the gang could sneak out a waterfall exit on the other side once the coast was clear.

Sweatshirts on...we're going in!

Here's why I hate the privately run caves. This picture doesn't even do justice to the cheese-factor here of fake Jesse. It was really, really lame. There were also a lot of colored lights instead of just white (a major pet-peeve of mine).

Our guide

Off topic - How long do Charlotte's legs look here??

Meramec has a huge room of these grape-bunch-like formations (called the Wine Room). Apparently some of the best in the world. The room at one time was completely submerged underwater, since that's the only way these are formed.

Also in the Wine Room is the world's rarest cave formation. I know. It's impressive. :)

Nicholas could care less about rare formations. But he does love doing "silly pictures". It's tough to get a good smile out of him these days!

The largest drapery formation in the world. It goes several levels above and below what's visible here. Amazing. Yet somewhat ruined when they sat us down in front of it to play God Bless America with a colored light show projected onto it. Is it not beautiful enough on its own??

What was Charlotte's favorite part? The bathroom visit. Why?

The bat sighting. We saw no activity in the actual cave, only attached to a ceiling tile outside the ladies room. Go figure.

We had a fun (and cool!) caving adventure. New this year at Meramec (I told you it was commercialized), they've put up a zipline across the river. The kids longingly watched people do it. Someday, guys... On the way home (it's a really pretty drive) Nicholas pointed at the trees and said - "Look! It looks like tons of giant broccoli!". And it did.

Stay tuned for more King family cave adventures!