After a short bus ride from the visitor center, the Domes and Dripstones tour enters via the "New" entrance, which was discovered when a giant sink hole…
The entrance looks like you're descending into a bomb shelter. Each area of the cave system used to be owned by a different private owner. The owners fought for…
One of the salamander looking creatures that lives down here near the entrance.
Looking down at the staircase descending into the cavern. The terrain here is much smaller, but much more exciting than the larger passages of the Historic…
The cave lighting, combined with the weird effects of the camera, make for some hell-ish looking photos.
Looking off the side of one of the metal walkways. You definitely would not want to go over the edge here!
More crazy staircases. This initial portion of the descent alone has 280 stairs. You have to crouch and duck at all sorts of odd angles in some of the tighter…
Cutting across a giant vertical shaft and into a neighboring tunnel.
We stop for a presentation before heading-up. This large room was the dividing line between competing cave owners in the past.
Some Helictites. Due to their mineral composition, water does not drip off of these like a normal stalactite, so they will never form a matching stalagmite.
One of the large passageways along the way.
A waterfall flowing through a hole in the ceiling. The sandstone cap gets thinner in this area, allowing water to seep through.
As the sandstone cap starts to give way, the seeping water can create the typical formations found in other limestone caves.
Some impressive draperies and "cave bacon".
The large room in front of Frozen Niagara.
A small underground lake far below.
Tons of draperies and a couple massive flows.
Some more formations as we make our way out of the cave and back up to the surface. Though not as "mammoth" as the Historic Tour, I found Domes and Dripstones…
A massive drapery known as the "Frozen Niagara". The largest drapery I've ever seen.