Mystery Cave, Forestville State Park, 21071 Co Hwy 118, Preston, MN 55965
Once you have explored the rest of Forestville State Park or perhaps before make sure you visit Mystery Cave. Take a tour.
Grab your jacket because the cave is always about 48 degrees, or something like that. It is also wet so be prepared for that. I was dripped upon several times. You can bring your children, but make sure they are well behaved. You wouldn’t want to lose one.
History, a trip through the caves is a trip throw history. The layers of the cave are made up of sediment from when the oceans used to cover Minnesota. Let me repeat myself here, the ocean used to cover Minnesota, but not just one time. You see the ocean recedes for a while and then comes back again over the over again, layer after layer. We are currently in one of those receding periods.
There are little bats in the cave, but nothing to worry about. In fact we are more of a threat to them than they are to us. Apparently there is some sort of bat disease that is killing the bats. This is rather unfortunate as these bats eat half their body weight in mosquitoes each night. Bats are cool.
This cave has stalagmites and stalactites. Water seeps into the cave and as it drips it creates these formations. The stalactites are at the top and the stalagmites are on the bottom.
As the water makes its way down through the cave floor it slowly becomes ground water. Unfortunately there are so many chemicals on the ground these days that the water isn’t drinkable anymore. Wrap your head around that for a moment. We are slowly poisoning our own drinking supplies.
Now for those with a bit more adventure in them there are crawling tours. It is just down that corridor.
I prefer the path more traveled and well lit myself.
There is a little treat if you want to call it that. At one point in the tour they turn off all of the lights and you get a sense of what it is like to be unable to see at all. It isn’t a darkness you have ever known on the surface, not even on the darkest night.
The cave is great. Plenty of interesting things to see. You might even get a look at one of those tiny bats. Pay attention to the tour guide. The history lesson is worth the time even if your are as much of a scaredy-cat as I am.
