Two weekends ago on my home, I was feeling frustrated and restless.

So naturally I decided to get it out by taking a 3 hour long tour 550 feet underground at Lewis and Clark State Caverns.

I went alone, and everybody seemed to be surprised that a lone female was hiking the 1/2 mile to the entrance and on the tour. The tour guide was very friendly and kept asking me questions, and an aloof couple from France kept holding up our tour group trying to get pictures without any of the ‘Muricans in the frames.

It was cool, humid, and beautiful. I couldn’t believe that nature can simultaneously allow caribou calves to run 12 minutes after birth and yet take 2,000 years to grow a single stalagmite. It’s incredible and humbling, but also sad- early explorers had dynamited the cave 100 years ago and only a few inches of limestone had grown back in some places, and none at all.

The darkness made it quite hard for my little flimsy digital camera to capture much of value but I hope you enjoy some views of what our beautiful world looks like underneath everything, if conditions are right and humans don’t ruin the good things.