The Biggest Cave in Minnesota

 Spring Valley, MN

Posing with Bat Art and our tickets.

Mystery Cave State Park

Today we drove south through Mower County among others, and into Fillmore County to visit Mystery Cave State Park.  Apparently it was named by workers clearing the cave of debris.  One was heard saying, "Why anyone would work in this cave is a mystery to me."  That isn't a great story but I didn't make it up so don't shoot the messenger.

Why anyone would want to visit this cave isn't a mystery.  It's awesome!  There are a few different tours you can choose (you have to pre-book) so we chose a 1 hour tour that runs on weekdays.  The tour started at the Visitor's Center.  

The cave is all locked up tight.  It's a 13 mile maze so you need a guide.

It's an active cave so the formations are still growing due to the dripping water leaving deposits.

It's a constant 47ish degrees so jackets are needed year round.  I hear 47 degrees is warm in the winter.

The formations are surreal.  They remind me of working Big Thunder Mountain.  They also remind me of...

This is the Turquoise Lake at the end of the tour.  It's man made.  It was a river but the original "Owner" dammed up the area to make a pool of water.

The Visitor's Center has a gift shop with some cool merch.

Thank You My Try Cave!  More like My Didn't Try very hard.

This is also a pretty crappy depiction of the cave.  I should send them some of my photos.  They aren't great but they are better than these.

There is also a pay phone outside.  I guess it's still here because cell service is bad.

On the way home we stopped in Rochester, MN to get ice cream at Flapdoodles.  The ice cream was great and it wasn't very expensive.  We will be stopping here again but getting the child's size next time.

It's very popular

That's it for today.  If you missed, Another County Fair, check it out.  It was practice for our upcoming State Fair visit.

Valley of Fire State Park

 Moapa Valley, NV

Not Watching the Super Bowl

Today we had a slow morning and then headed about an hour north to Valley of Fire State Park to avoid any Super Bowl festivities.  It's been on our list of places to visit for years now and we figured that it wouldn't be that crowded during the game and we were right.  I only heard one person mention the game and that was an employee working in the gift shop  It was nice being around people who chose nature over supporting the NFL.

The Visitor Center perfectly fits in with the red rocks of Valley of Fire

They were open but I wanted to make a, "Sorry Folks, Park's closed, The Owl out front should have told you!"

They had a theater showing videos from various state parks within the state.

The Visitor Center Store had the most Las Vegas / State Park shirt ever.

After the visitor center we did a short drive to the parking lot for the Rainbow Vista Trail hike which is a mile round trip.

It was a mile in loose sand so we got some good exercise

The red sand really made some of the plants look blue.

We saw a regular sized Big Horned Sheep that looked tiny.

We made it to the end and enjoyed the views.

You can see the train markers leading us off into the distance.

After our hike we drove to the end of the loop to see some of the other named rock features before heading home.

Donna took some really good drive shots.  It was a great drive and you should try to get out there next time you are in the area.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Pinball Tournament at the Pinball Hall of Fame, check it out, it was a fun tournament.

Setting Up for a State Completion

 All Over Arizona

When you roll out of van, make coffee, and go look at birds...

Arizona Road Trip

For the past two days we have been road tripping Arizona.  We had about an 8 hour drive to complete all but 1 county so we stuck a night camping in the middle and made it a really nice 2 day drive.  We saw tons of great birds including Vermilion Flycatchers, Phainopeplas, a lone Crissal Thrasher, and Gambol's Quail to name a few.  The weather was pretty perfect for camping.  High of about 75 and low of about 45.  The drive was really pretty too so it was a win all around.

Our site was pretty awesome and we didn't have ALL of our stuff with us.

They even had a dog park

with a swing

The sky was beautiful just before sunset the first day.

Fire pits for The Insta!

Part of the beautiful drive

We saw a lot of cotton bales.

On the drive back we stopped by Barrio Brewing Co for lunch.  It's the oldest craft brewery in Arizona.

The beers were solid and it was Taco Tuesday.

One more tiny county on the border of Mexico left.  We will get this one when we do a day trip to Nogales MX next month.

Our travel mapping shows some good miles.  The lower loop on the right was this most recent road trip.

We also blew past Missouri in miles.  We will pass Montana and maybe Idaho before this leg of our trip is over.

That's it for today.  If you missed A Pinball Tournament in a Furniture Store, check it out.