Caves have intrigued me since seeing the movie “The Descent” a few years ago. Minus the murderous humanoid creatures, I was equal parts fascinated and creeped out by the idea of walking, crawling, climbing or wading through underground caverns built by nature over a ridiculous amount of centuries, in what would basically be complete darkness. It’s primal. It’s raw. It’s scary.
LAS Home Team braved Spook Cave on a weekend in late June in hopes that we might find something raw and creepy. After all, there is a ghost on their logo. We didn’t find anything bigger than a mosquito that wanted to eat us but we did find that the name originated from strange sounds coming from a spring heard by early settlers of Clayton County. Discoverer Gerald Mielke put people’s fears to rest that it was not ghosts (or blind, insane, eating machines) but a very young cave. Now the cave gives tours via boat to spectate the underground wonder and makes only slight mention of anything spooky. No walking, crawling, climbing or wading. Just floating, which supports my theory that the cannibalistic creatures don’t like cold water and can’t figure out how to turn on the boat motors so the cave stays people-eating-free. For now…
Our tour guide was what appeared to be a high school girl that was occasionally incoherent as she rattled off the scripted information and puttered the little boat along. No comment here on her tour guide skills but was actually slightly impressed with her boat directing. Not that I know anything about tooling 50 year old aluminum boats with tiny motors around incredibly cramped spaces with 10 people aboard, but she did a pretty okay job in my book.
And not that I know anything about caves, either, except what I learned from The Iowa Grotto. And that is that caves are a very fragile environment. With that in my head my visit to Spook Cave was confusing as I didn’t get how a cave could stand the banging of a boat along the sides. I researched further thanks to the Spook Cave gift shop (I freakin’ love souvenirs) and the purchase of the book, ‘Iowa Underground: A Guide of the State’s Subterranean Treasures’, and learned that the cave developed in the Galena Limestone. And that the water flows on top of Decorah Shale. Which in other words means it’s resistant. Whew. Glad I got that off my worried conscience.
Walls along the boat tour
So back to the tour. Unique in the fact it’s the only one of its kind in Iowa. Uncomfortable in the fact that most of the tour your crouching down in the boat to avoid the ceiling of the cave. Not so convenient for a 6 foot 6 inch giant trying to take photos. No problem for a 5 foot 2 inch shorty; however holding a wiggly one year old upped the level of difficulty some. And a breeze for a four year old that only ducked unnecessarily because everyone else did. Getting over that issue, the cave was sweet. Interesting formation, different sized rooms, comic relief by way of ‘Old Joe’. The tour is totally family friendly. Not too long, decently lit, not dangerous despite the water, and nothing to alarm the youngins.
Word up is that it’s not just about the cave. The area is an entire campground which had tons of RVs and tents strewn about during our stopover, and tons of people enjoying the weekend. There were also cabins for rent. I’m not sure if it should’ve, but it all surprised me. The sparkly center of the experience was learning about the history. How the cave was found and its trial and error, the town swept away by floods, the waterfall, and all the other stories told were priceless. Looking at the Grand Scheme of Things you sorta see how not only fear, disasters, and mishaps all were factors in the story behind such a beautiful thing, but also fearlessness, vision, and perseverance.
Waterfall
I did have to wonder if perhaps Spook Cave was harvested for tourism about seven centuries too early. A little more time to percolate might’ve resulted in more formations. Nonetheless Spook Cave is a very interesting and wondrous experience. To sum up, crouching tour by boat, no scary creatures trying to eat you, beautiful waterfall, fun surroundings, rich history. In the journey to experience Iowa’s world of action and adventure Spook Cave was bacon-formation-fantastic.
Cave Bacon formations
If you’ve been to Spook Cave please tell us about your experience. You can see Home Team’s photos of the cave in the gallery. They are available for purchase as well.
Tags: boat tours, caves, decorah shale, floods, galena limestone, iowa underground, murderous humanoid creatures, old joe, spook cave, waterfall
