{"id":1574,"date":"2014-09-01T15:40:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T20:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/?p=1574"},"modified":"2014-09-01T15:40:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T20:40:45","slug":"indian-caverns-and-lincoln-caverns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/?p=1574","title":{"rendered":"Indian Caverns and Lincoln Caverns"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent the second day of the Labor Day weekend in caves. It was raining on
\nSunday but this does not matter if you are going to be inside caves. But I don’t
\nlike driving in the rain. For this trip I had to drive west, deeper into the
\nheart of Central Pennsylvania, to some caves near State College. I visited
\nIndian Caverns<\/a>, and Lincoln Caverns<\/a> because it is a short drive from Indian Caverns. I was particularly eager to see Indian Caverns because I thought this might be the Indian caves we visited when I was a child. I’m pretty sure this was the place because they had Indian blankets for sale. We had Indian blankets and an Indian drum for years and years after our cave trip. The other possibility was that we went to Indian Echo Caverns, but it makes more sense that we stuck to Central PA.<\/p>\n

I’ve never been to State College so that may be a good city to visit in the
\nfuture. Bellefonte may also be a cool little town because it is known for its
\nVictorian architecture. I don’t drive west very often so I’m still unfamiliar
\nwith the highways in that direction. Pass Lock Haven U.S 220 South merges with
\nInterstate 80 in a way that often throws me off. I used my GPS to navigate on
\nthis trip. For the caves I had to use GPS coordinates so I learned how to enter
\nthem into my TomTom XL 340S. I also printed out cheat sheets because the GPS
\nnever tells you what street to look for. For example, it will tell you “Right
\nturn ahead” long before you reach the target street and then “Turn right and
\ntake the highway” but it won’t tell you its Route 45 West you should be on. So
\nit is crucial to have some idea where you should be going. I did notice that it
\nwarns you when you are speeding and it gives the distance to the next turn.<\/p>\n

I saw some great scenery on the drive to the caves even though it was
\nraining. There was a lot of mist around the mountains. I also saw a lot of
\nfarmland and fields of corn. Somewhere along the highway you are tempted to take
\nyour eyes off the road because there is a vast valley that you can see below.
\nUnfortunately there is no place where you can pull off the road to enjoy the
\nview.<\/p>\n

Indian Caverns has a curious rounded building built into the mountainside.
\nYou have to cross a rickety bridge over a creek to get to it. It is located in
\nthe woods and has a very rustic look. I arrived at the cave around 10:30 a.m.
\nbut I had to wait a half hour for the 11:00 a.m. tour. The gift shop had many
\nIndian themed gifts which were tempting but I bought a DVD Pennsylvania
\nCaves and Caverns<\/em>, which lists eight caves. I have been to five of those
\neight caves. Fortunately they also had a restroom which I needed after the two
\nhour drive. I passed the time leafing though a travel guide to the
\nJuniata River Valley<\/a>. The only thing I saw of any interest to me was Lewistown, a
\ntown where my sister used to live when she found a job there. Later at Lincoln
\nCaverns I found more interesting brochures like one for the Flight 93 Memorial
\nand the 2014 Central PA Visitor’s Guide which is devoted to State College but
\nincludes some Williamsport attractions.<\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>

Indian Caverns<\/p><\/div>\n

When the tour began at 11:00 a.m. I was the only person in the tour group but
\nlater a few other people joined the tour after we were half way through the
\ncaverns. There was the usual business of turning off the lights to show us how
\npitch black it was without the light. I am likely to confuse this cave tour with
\nthe Lincoln Caverns which I visited shortly after, but I remember that this cave
\nallows Boy Scouts to stay overnight in the cave, without lights, to earn merit
\nbadges. There are no bats in the caves because all the bats are dying from
\nWhite-Nose Syndrome.<\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>

Indian Caverns Interior<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a short drive to the next cave, Lincoln Caverns near Huntington PA.
\nThere are actually two separate caves to see here; Lincoln Caverns and Whisper
\nRocks. The gift shop had a large selection of souvenirs and I bought a chunk of
\npolished ocean jasper for $15.00 before I left. As I mentioned before, they had
\na wide selection of free brochures including brochures for show caves all across
\nAmerica.<\/p>\n

\"Lincoln<\/a>

Lincoln Caverns<\/p><\/div>\n

There were more people in my tour group at the Lincoln Caverns. It was
\ndrizzling so I was glad to get into the caves. I brought along my light jacket
\nbecause the temperature is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit in these caves. The
\nLincoln Caverns had some steep steps and narrow passages. I managed to take a
\nlot of decent photos in these caves. At one point the tour guide turned out all
\nthe lights to show us the pitch black. This is part of every cave
\ntour. But she didn’t leave the lights off for long. There was a short uphill
\nclimb to reach the other cave system, Whisper Rocks, which has its own door. The
\ntwo caves are not connected so we had to go back out in the rain to reach the
\nother one. There were many spiders hanging out at the cave entrance, over the
\ndoor, and some of the kids got a little hysterical over that. In this cave I saw
\nsome excellent examples of flowstone. Yes, I have picked up some of the cave
\nlingo after this trip.<\/p>\n

\"Lincoln<\/a>

Lincoln Caverns Interior<\/p><\/div>\n

I was really starving after leaving Lincoln Caverns but unfortunately there
\nare no places to eat on U.S. 220 North. I drove pass a little diner that looked
\ninteresting but it was raining too hard to stop. I didn’t eat anything until I
\ngot home at around 4:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"Woolrich<\/a>

Woolrich Outlet Store<\/p><\/div>\n

Before I went home I did manage to squeeze in one other side trip. I visited
\nthe Woolrich Flagship Store and Outlet<\/a> in Woolrich PA. It was slightly difficult
\nto reach because there was a detour around some road construction. Woolrich PA
\nis just across the Lycoming County line in Clinton County so technically it is
\nin my neck of the woods. Towering evergreens line the road into town. There are
\nattractive ranch houses along the street so the town almost looks like a summer
\ncamp with houses instead of cabins. Woolrich sells expensive sportswear and
\noutdoor clothing in red plaid. It is the perfect fashion for Pennsylvania’s
\nwoodsy outdoor recreation. I’ve been hiking wearing the same clothes that I wear
\nat the office so I need to buy some outdoor clothing. Woolrich clothing should
\nbe ideal since it shows local pride. I only bought a short-sleeve plaid shirt
\nbecause their prices are steep, even with the discount. That shirt sells for
\n$55.00 but I got it for $29.99. I also bought a black bear teddy bear wearing a
\nred plaid Woolrich jacket since it is a fine example of Pennsylvania kitsch.
\nLincoln Caverns actually had a brochure for the Woolrich Original Outlet Store.
\nIt is considered a tourist attraction in its own right and there are billboards
\nfor the store along Interstate 80. The store did have an attractive interior
\nwith an indoor waterfall and old Woolrich advertisements from the 1950s. There
\nwas a table with travel guides to Williamsport and Pennsylvania but I already
\nhave all those.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent the second day of the Labor Day weekend in caves. It was raining on Sunday but this does not matter if you are going to be inside caves. But I don’t like driving in the rain. For this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,97],"tags":[975,976,354,977],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1580,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions\/1580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamsportwebdeveloper.com\/cgi\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}