Ohio Caverns in West Liberty, Ohio. We learned so much...

The difference between a cavern and a cave is that a cave has a natural opening to the outside. Caverns are completely underground. This cavern was discovered by a farmer in the late 1800s. We took a mile-long walk through, it even has a natural lake called "crystal lake." The names of all the rooms sounded like they were in a 'My Little Pony' story. The guide gave us a pneumonic that finally helps me remember the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. She said stalactites "hold on 'tight' to the ceiling" and stalagmites "grow up from the floor and 'might' reach the ceiling." Each stalactite has a stalagmite below it. They grow from the same drip of mineral water coming from the ceiling. When they finally grow together (after thousands of years) it's called a "column" (see the third photo from the top). Since everyone wants to touch the crystals and it's so damaging to them, the caverns keepers designated one crystal that everyone can touch (see bottom photo) It takes 500 years for a crystal to grow the size of a golf ball, so the crystal Scarlett is touching is about 3000 years old!