Falling Waters EarthCache
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For this earthcache, you are going to visit the tallest waterfall
in state of Florida. It is a really good one! Make sure you see
it.
Welcome to Falling Waters!
The posted coordinates lead you to a fantastic place to be - the
viewing platform for this exceptional waterfall. To get there, take
I-10 to exit 120. After exiting I-10, travel south on SR-77 for
just over one-half mile to CR-77A (State Park Road). Turn left on
CR-77A and follow the road to the park entrance. The park is open
daily from 8am until sunset. The park is open 365 days per year.
There is a small admission fee. The fee is $5 per vehicle.
Falling Waters State Park is a great place to visit. Actually, I
think that pretty much all of the Florida parks are pretty darn
great. I love Florida.
Anyway, this park is special in that it has lots of examples of
sinks. There are sinks all over the place here.
In fact, the namesake of this park, the big waterfall, flows down
into a wicked sink. It is beautiful. It is cylindrical and tight
and narrow, it is deep, and it is totally exposed rock. It is a
deep dark pit, with a huge waterfall flowing down into it. Down
into the abyss. How cool is that?
Here the water falls down, many feet, into this pit and then
disappears. It goes underground and becomes a submerged river.
Perhaps it eventually comes back up to the surface somewhere to
flow on the surface again. But I do not know if that is the case,
or whether anyone knows that. Perhaps it does not resurface as a
river at all. Maybe it flows into an underground aquifer - in
effect serving as a very dramatic recharge point.
This park is chock full of geological activity, my friends. Lots of
sinks. Like I said, the waterfall itself flows into a sink. As you
walk the short distance to the waterfall, you pass by another sink
on your right, a really good one. There are several well-developed
and well-maintained trails through this park. If you have the time,
take the "Sinkhole Trail", which is the longer trail, and which
takes you alongside a series of natural depressions in the
limestone.
This park also boasts lots of nature diversity (plant and
wildlife), as well as quite a bit of history. They drilled for oil
here a long time ago. Industry harnessed the water power here to
grind corn, and the trees from the forest here were harvested at
various times. There are interpretive signs galore here to capture
your interest in all of that.
But earthcaches are not about blood and cellulose. They are about
silica, iron, and acid. So don't let all the living stuff that
surrounds you here distract your focus away from doing this
earthcache. Focus yourself on the rock, Grasshopper. You must keep
geology within the center of yourself and your mind. Now, snatch
the cricket from my hand.
Florida has a very dynamic karst topography that is found in few
places around the world. Over millions of years, a unique recipe of
limestone, confining beds, organic matter, and moving water has
sculpted this area's seemingly flat terrain into a widespread karst
configuration that includes complex networks of interconnected
caverns and caves, drainage basins, disappearing rivers, flowing
springs, collapsing sinkholes, circular lakes, and subsurface
aquifers.
Now, on to the tasks that you must complete...
LOGGING
REQUIREMENTS:
In order to claim this earthcache as a find, you must complete the
following tasks.
Requirement #1 - Photo Of Your Mug With The
Waterfall Behind You: Go to the posted coordinates.
There you will find a really cool viewing platform next to a really
cool waterfall. With your find log, you must post a photo of
yourself, with the waterfall in the background.
Click here to see an example of the kind of picture I want to
see. I don't care about your GPSr being in the picture.
Requirement #2 - Email Me Some
Answers: At the posted coordinates, in addition to being
next to the waterfall, you will also find an interpretive sign. The
sign provides lots of information. You need to read the sign and
understand it, and then send me an email with the answers to the
following questions. What is the height of the
waterfall? Second question: When did the
limestone form? You must provide the answers to these two
questions in your email to me. Do not post the answers in your
on-line log.
Requirement #3 - Send Me One More
Answer: Go to N30° 43.556' W085° 31.862'. There, you
will find a historical interpretive sign that documents the pursuit
of a big-time oil venture here. You need to read the sign and
understand it, and then send me an email with the answer to the
following question. What depth did the oil well
ultimately reach, and what year was the well capped? You
must provide the answer to this question in your email to me. Do
not post the answers in your on-line log.
Requirement #4 - What Do You
Think?: There is no "right answer" for this one. What I
want you to do is state your opinion, in your on-line log,
as to where you think all that falling water ends up. Does it
return to the surface somewhere as a stream? Or does it flow into
an underground aquifer? Perhaps you know. Perhaps you have
researched and/or googled it and have found answers, facts. Or
maybe you do not know. That is okay, because you can make a guess.
Guesses are good. One of the key elements of the scientific method
is the smart guess, you know.
Logs not accompanied by email within a reasonable amount of time
will be deleted per earthcache rules. I don't like doing that. So
please be careful to get done what you need to get done.
Just simply visiting the spot (or having had visited the spot in
the past) in itself is not good enough to log this earthcache as a
find. Anyone can "be at the spot". The earthcache is not about just
"being at the spot". You need to complete the requirements. They
are easy and designed so that anyone can fulfill them. If you don't
complete them, then you don't complete it. That's the way it
is.
Remember Your Four Requirements:
1. Photo Of Self With Waterfall In Background,
2. Email Answering Two Questions About Waterfall,
3. Same Email Answering Questions About Oil Well, and
4. In Your Log, Your Opinion About Water Terminus.
I hope you learn something. And I hope you have fun.
Thanks go to Ronnie Hudson, Florida Park Service Ranger supervisor,
for approving this earthcache and for being so friendly and
enthusiastic about earthcaches.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)