Tumbling Rock Cave

Our second cave of the day yesterday was Tumbling Rock Cave.  This was a completely different experience.  The parking lot is right next to the entrance of the cave.  More permits are given out for this cave - 150 daily.  When I checked 48 hours before our trip, only 20 had been given out.  We probably only saw 10 people the whole time we were in the cave but there were definitely people further in that we never saw.

This cave is completely self-guided.  There are no lights or trail markings.  We did have a map of the cave but we're still amateurs at caving and it's difficult to be 100% sure on your location.  Though we were pretty sure on our location, most of the time.  We all wore helmets, headlamps, and gloves.  This cave is mostly horizontal so it's considered easy for beginners.  There is a stream through the cave as well that had a good amount of water in it yesterday and we were near it most of the time (and had to cross it several times).

The entrance of the cave has a gate and we were given a code for the padlock when we registered for our permits.

Starting into the cave ...

We quickly figured out that Brian's headlamp was far superior to the rest of ours.  We had bought his the day before and now all want new headlamps!  We were definitely happy though we had one bright headlamp because it is SO EASY to get lost.  We were trying our best to remember rock formations and look behind us to see what things would look like on the way out so we wouldn't make a wrong turn and get lost. 

The sections of the cave we explored were generally large rooms.  We were able to stand most of the time.  And there weren't too many side rooms.  We generally were able to stay to the right and not get lost.

There were some really awesome rock formations and probably more that we didn't see because we didn't turn our heads in the right direction to light them up or go far enough to the right or left in the large rooms.

This was one of my favorite spots.  There was a small waterfall flowing over the rock in the middle and we had to crawl through a narrow tunnel on the right where you see Gray.

Gray did so good.  He climbed over all the rock and crawled through narrow spots with no complaints.  He didn't even slow us down much.  Carter and Rylan led the whole time.  We were amazed that they weren't scared.  They were heading into a pitch black cave not knowing what to expect in front of them with just a couple of "weak" headlamps.  I made sure not to let me head start going too much or I may have been freaking out!

Columns:

Stalactites:

This formation is one of the "Elephant's Feet".

At 1 hour 20 minutes in, we decided to turn around.  We think we made it about 0.5 miles into the cave (though we did a lot of up and down and side to side as we climbing over and through passages).  We'd already hiked earlier in the day and we were a little nervous the kids would get tired on the way back.  If you look at the map, we think we turned around in room 24.  Though we aren't 100% sure.  We are excited to return soon and go further.  We were only about 1/3 of the way into the cave and about 1/2 way to the Topless Dome which is a 400 foot shaft with a waterfall.  So we definitely have something to look forward to next time and will hopefully feel more confident.  Honestly, I didn't expect us to make it this far our first time in this cave.

Here are a few more pictures I took on the way out.  There are all with my phone.  Maybe I'll try to take in my real camera next time.

 

It took us about 1 hour to get back to the entrance of the cave.

We were a muddy mess when we got out of the cave.

Luckily we knew this would happen and all had a complete change of clothes (and a ton of baby wipes) in the car.  We all had a lot of fun and can't wait to do some more caving soon!!!

Stephens Gap Callahan Cave Preserve

Yesterday we drove down to Alabama to explore a couple of caves. The first was Stephens Gap Callahan Cave Preserve.  I came across this hike in Backpacker magazine and it's been on our list of places to visit for the a few months now.  It's only about 2 hours from our house so an easy day trip with the boys.

The cave is owned by SCCI and we had to get permits to visit.  There are only 25 permits per day given out and we had 5 of them.  We were the only ones in the parking lot when we got there around 9:30am.

There is a relatively easy 0.8 mile hike to the cave.  Normally this hike would be a breeze but this area of Alabama was still under a flood warning from earlier rain and the trail was pure mud for 90% of the hike.  Most of us have boots so no big deal but Gray only has his normal sneakers.  And once those get covered in mud and he wants us to carry him, we are a little reluctant to put him on our shoulders.  So we ended up carrying him like a baby when he was over the mud (and that's tough on the arms!).

But it was totally worth it because the waterfall into the cave was crazy!  I haven't seen another picture online with anywhere near as much water as we saw yesterday.

There are two entrances into the cave.  One is a sink that you can repel through.  The other is a rocky walk-in entrance that we used.  Though we read lots of warnings about this being tough (steep and slippery), it actually was fine.  Even Gray hiked it.

Once inside, the cave is just one large room.  But if we didn't have kids that eventually get bored, we could have stayed there all day just hanging out.

Rylan and Gray with the walk-in entrance behind them ...

The water was racing out of the wall behind me in this picture and down the pit entrance as a waterfall.  It was so loud in the cave you had to be right next to someone to hear them.

Here is the water from the wall making racing stream.

The pit entrance is on the left and the walk-in entrance is on the right.

Here is the waterfall entering the pit with Carter sitting on the right of the waterfall.

We saw lots of these snails along the hike.  And I think we even help Gray from crushing any when he found them!

And Gray pointed out this weird little tree and Brian spotted a geocache tucked into the bottom (he was picking up trash on our way out and was going to grab it toss it).

Unfortunately we didn't have a pen to sign it (we would have been the first ones).  And it's not on the geocaching website we use so we were wondering if it was just placed.  It was still really dry and it great shape so we think it may have been.

When we got back to the parking lot, several more people showed up, including a group planning to repel into the cave.  We were glad we'd arrived early and had the cave to ourselves (we had passed only two people on the trail heading to the cave as we were heading back to the trailhead).

We had lunch in the parking lot and then headed on to the second cave of the day (Tumbling Rock Cave).

Opryland

On Christmas Eve we did our annual trip up to Opryland to see the decorations.

Gray told me he wanted to pretend all of these presents were for him and he'd be surprised and to take his picture :)

Our favorite thing are these fountains that were new last year.  We could sit and watch them for hours.

It was cold but not freezing so we actually got to look at the outdoor decorations and enjoy it.

The giant Christmas tree...

Running around this "jungle" is also a favorite for the boys ...

Merry Christmas!!!

Geocaching

It's been pretty cold most of the week but we still need to get our boys out each day to burn off some energy.  We've been doing a lot of geocaches.  The City of Brentwood has a history series that are located in the historic parks around the city.  They are great because they are multi-step, you use numbers found on the historical signs to figure out coordinates, and they all have locks on the actual caches so they are always there (I hate searching forever to never find the cache or letterbox).  So far we've done 5 of the 9 caches.  It's been fun and we've even discovered a new park with an awesome playground!

Dude

Man, this kid is a challenge!  He is STUBBORN and not scared of us AT ALL.  This look is really fitting!!!

Elf on the Shelf Friday

Saturday, December 22nd

Mr. Elf was playing with our Mr. Potato Head and must have got stuck in his "butt".

Sunday, December 23rd

I think Mr. Elf was trying to remind us to make cookies for Santa.  Unfortunately we ran out of time and had to use some chocolate chip cookies Brian had brought home from work :)

Monday, December 24th

Mr. Elf took the dogs from our Paw Patrol advent calendar for a walk before going home on Christmas.