When I was a kid, we used to visit Natural Bridge State Park and the privately owned caverns there. While I was home for Christmas, we were looking back at old film and found some pictures of a trip we went on ~20 years ago. My husband and I decided to go. Here are some side-by-side photos.

Some of the plants we saw on the hike.

A couple of critters

Some of the views

We also went to a nearby privately owned cavern for a tour. This was another one I hadn’t done since I was a kid. I REALLY wanted to see a salamander. Funny enough, when I was looking back at the old photos, there’s a salamander right there!

The caverns were fascinating. It was neat seeing the bats, since they were peacefully sleeping the winter away. Caverns are isolated from the environment above, so they typically lack life that relies on the sun. With the lights in the cavern, there were patches of moss. Over time, the moss will break down the rock. Because of this, they typically keep many of the lights off until you need to walk through that area. Below is an example of moss only growing where the light touches. Where the handrail blocks the light, there is no moss.

Next time, we will try to go during the spring to see more plants and hopefully some salamanders!