Caverne dans Le Roc EarthCache
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Park Hours 6:00am to 10:00pm
Located in southern Illinois along the Ohio River in Hardin County, and is even accessible from Kentucky side of the river via ferry.
We have listed two sets of questions to obtain this cache allowing for handicap accessibility. However, for all others you can expect a 1:2 as even on the trail you must be cautious in some areas to find your answers.
Few natural formations are as awe-inspiring or intriguing as a cave. The deep, dark recesses immediately conjure up images of adventure, mystery, terror, robbers and pirates.
At Cave-In-Rock you can experience this fascination for yourself. Sitting atop the high bluffs overlooking the scenic Ohio River the heavily wooded park is named for the cave that was carved out of the limestone rock by water thousands of years ago.
Throughout the 19th century, this remarkable geological feature was an important landmark, prominently displayed on maps from the period.
This karst cavern in the Mississippian St. Louis Limestone once extended farther to the south, but the swirling waters of the Ohio River, just a few feet to the south of the entrance, have truncated it. The Cave-In-Rock was worn into the sandstone bluffs of the Ohio by river floods, especially during the melt off following the Wisconsin ice age. It is not a cavern like Mammoth Cave in nearby Kentucky; it is a wide tunnel leading a short distance.
Karst topography is a landscape shaped by the dissolution of a soluble layer or layers of bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite. These landscapes display distinctive surface features and underground drainages, and in some examples there may be little or no surface drainage. Some areas of karst topography, such as southern Missouri and northern Arkansas in the USA, are underlain by thousands of caves.
Modern history says this cave has been a landmark for almost 300 years and has been a church, tavern, home and now tourist attractions. Today trails wind along the riverbank offering views of riverboats, barges and other river scenes.
Early on as European explorers traveled this way it was a conspicuous curiosity frequently mentioned in diaries and journals. In 1729 the first European explorer to encounter it was M. de Lery of France who called it “caverne dans Le Roc”. The cave also served as a great lair for outlaws, bandits and river pirates who preyed on the people traveling along the Ohio River. For example, in 1797 it was converted into a tavern, offering an opportunity for the owner to dispatch his cohorts/henchmen upriver to do what pirates do best. Various such desperadoes took advantage of the secrecy and seclusion afforded by Cave-In-Rock until westward expansion of civilization and commerce had destroyed or driven out the “river rats” and the cave began to serve as temporary shelter for other pioneers on their way west.
It’s interesting to note that the cave served as a backdrop for a scene in the movie “How The West Was Won.” The scene was a near-accurate portrayal of how, in the 18th-19th centuries, ruthless bandits used the cave to lure unsuspecting travelers to an untimely end.
Available here is boating, camping, hiking, picnicking, lodge, restaurant, and a marina.
Requirements for Handicapped:
1) Log a picture with your GPS at the listed coordinates.
Email your answers with the name of the earthecache to the owner.
Near the listed coordinates you will find a man-made structure that will give you an unusual view.
2) What you are looking into?
3) What depth do you estimate it to be?
Requirements for Non-Handicapped:
1) Post a picture with your gps at the entrance to the cave.
Email your answers with the name of the earthecache to the owner.
2) What year on entrance ceiling is noted when B.C. Cole visited?
3) In the back look at the ceiling, what geological feature you see?
4) While visiting the entrance of the cave, how wide do you estimate the width?
During times of extreme high water All cachers are allowed to log using the questions of the Handicapped Accessible cachers if the entrance is unaccessible.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)