Day 3- Bones and Caves

Our third day was supposed to be a rainy day, but we lucked out in that regard.  It was a chilly day though, so the sweatshirts and jackets we packed were necessary.  We started our day with a visit to the Mammoth Site.  We had never been there before, so it was a new experience for all of us!  The building is placed on top of an archaeological dig site where where over 80 woolly mammoths have been found.  Back in prehistoric times, this area was a sink hole and a bunch of woolly mammoths and other mammals fell in and couldn't get out.  There was a short tour where we listened to the tour guide through a phone system.  The kids got bored with it after awhile, so we caught them up on the major points.  After the tour, we were free to roam on our own.  It was really cool to see the fossils partially in the ground.  And as you can imagine, our little dinosaur lover was in awe.  During the summer months, visitors can see the paleontologists at work.  We'll have to check that out next time!

Most complete fossil found

tusks

Cave Bear and boy

Femur

Buddy had a complete meltdown in the gift shop.  He was determined to buy a buffalo toy (that he already owned!).  We told him no and then he wanted a dinosaur toy.  We told him no since he already had so many at home.  He left the gift shop crying, kicking and screaming and finally 5 minutes later he came back to choose something after he calmed down.

After the Mammoth Site, we had a picnic lunch and traveled to Jewel Cave National Monument.  Buddy fell asleep during our drive there, but we were an hour early for our scheduled cave tour.  We decided to take a drive a few miles up the road to a scenic lookout we saw on the map.  Little did we know, there was major road construction and the road was down to a one-way highway led by a pilot car.  We were basically driving near the cliffs edge in a slow moving line next to big bulldozers as they worked on the road.  We traveled maybe 10 miles round trip and it took us exactly an hour.  As soon as we walked through the door to the visitor center, we heard "3:30 cave tour is now leaving."  We were very lucky to have made it back.

The cave tour was interesting, but I don't think the kids got it at all.  We took an elevator ride 250 feet below ground, walked through some pressurized doors (like the Metrodome), and saw one huge cave room.  After the park ranger talked for 10 minutes, we had a chance to ask questions, and we took the elevator ride back up.  There were some sparkly rocks to look at, and some big dropoffs to keep Buddy away from, but other than that, the kids had no clue we were so deep below the Earth and that the cave was actually hundreds of miles long.  They do offer a 2.5 hour walking tour that we'll have to think about doing when the kids are teenagers.  Of course, 15 minutes into the tour, Punky had another bathroom emergency, so I was glad the tour was only 20 minutes long.  Poor girl.