Vacation Part II (Brace yourself, there is definitely a part III and maybe a part IV)

Our second day of vacation was spent going to church and hanging out at camp.

The third day we went on a hike.  Or a death march, depending on who you ask.  Timpanogos Cave is up a mile and a half trail that has over a thousand foot elevation gain.  The trail was paved, but steep and narrow with a suicidal drop off.  Everyone was going to have to make it up by themselves.   It would have been foolhardy to try to piggyback the littler ones.  We got about a hundred yards up the trail and Grace announced that she was tired and couldn't make it.  I reflected I had paid almost $40 for the privilege of hiking this mountain.  She lost the argument.  We proceeded on.  We did take several rest stops and it took us over an hour but the entire family made it under their own power.

 Ready to head up.  Just waiting for our safety lecture.

 Ethan walking backwards which we had just been told not to do.

 The path went right through the mountain.  It momentarily took Grace's mind off her aching legs.

 Then she remembered.

About half way up.  We started from the valley floor.  The forest fire smoke followed us to Utah, unfortunately.

 Eventually our goal was in sight.

 The outhouse on the top of the mountain.  It was much rejoiced over!

We finally made it but the altitude may have gotten to us.

After a brief rest to drink water and eat some Chex mix, we were ready for the main event.

The Cave:

Okay, there are actually three interconnected caves but I digress.

  

There were coral fossils in the walls, meaning this cave at the top of a mountain used to be on the ocean floor. Crazy.

Rock flows down the walls.

AND an honest to goodness fault line. This very boring looking picture is actually truly awesome.  It is a fault line and it was above our heads.  It's amazing the force these two rocks can create by rubbing against each other.

In the second cave our guide turned off the lights.  Sam had a great big meltdown experiencing complete darkness.  He needed carried for awhile.

There were helictites, lots of helictites.  Most caves only have a hundred or so.  The caves in at Timponogos have thousands and thousands.  They are like stalactites, but they grow all twisty instead of straight down.  No one knows why.

 We saw lakes undisturbed for millions of years.

And we saw the heart of the mountain.  This massive guy is hanging from the ceiling and weighs four thousand pounds. 

Some rocks were pink, some were white, some where caramel colored, and some an eerie green.

This stalactite and stalagmite want to meet up and make a column. If there were 3/4 inches space between these two, it will take over 200 years for them to meet.

After the cave we still had to hike back down.  See the path?  That's the top of it.  We had to make it all the way back down to the valley floor.  And we needed to use the outhouse again.  After drinking all the water at the top and spending half an hour in a 40 degree cave, we needed a pit stop.  Unfortunately, the cave cut through the mountain so we would have had to hike back up to use the outhouse previously pictured.  We decided to head quickly back down.  Libby and I were highly motivated and made it back down in 27 minutes (she timed us).  Ethan joined us for our power walk down the mountain.  Michael and the little ones made it shortly thereafter. 

We sat around drinking water for a few moments and then headed into town to find a pool.  The kids were excited to swim.  Michael and I were excited to take a real shower.