MERAMEC CAVERNS

It was Sunday, 13th April 2014, and the plan was to visit Meramec Caverns, a distance of 60 miles from St.Louis, where we stayed for the weekend. It's just about an hour's drive from the place and we reached at 12 noon. 
The place is quiet and peaceful from outside, lot of parking space, flowing river one side of the road and a hill on the side.

The entrance to venue is simple and inside, as we pass through the gift shop, we really see the caves, superbly maintained and tour guides waiting for a group to assemble. 

We joined the group waiting and it was a small size of about 15 people and we were the only Indians.

Beneath the fertile rolling hills of the Meramec Valley, lies a complex of mineral formations and color as rare and unique as they are beautiful. These jewels of nature which took thousands of years to grow, are preserved in the spectacular sights of Meramec Caverns. 

Guided tours by trained rangers are conducted along well-lighted walkways. All cavern facilities are accessible to the disabled. Learn how an ancient limestone "Wine Table" and an entire 7-story mansion were built... all underground. On tour you will see both the rarest and largest cave formations in the world. 

Meramec Caverns is the largest commercial cave in the state of Missouri. Missouri is also known as the Cave state, hosting home to more than 6,000 surveyed caves. Meramec Caverns is open year round and offers a fun, affordable vacation for all its visitors. 

Meramec Caverns is the collective name for a 4.6-mile (7.4 km) cavern system in the Ozarks, near Stanton, Missouri.The caverns were formed from the erosion of large limestone deposits over millions of years. Pre-Columbian Native American artifacts have been found in the caverns. 

The Meramec Caverns have existed for the past 400 million years slowly forming through deposits of limestone In centuries past, Native Americans used the cavern system for shelter. The first cave west of the Mississippi River to be explored by Europeans, it was first visited in 1722 by a French miner.

It was a worth visiting place and it took about two hours before we were out from the place and hit the road to travel back to Peoria, about 250 miles on a super highway.

written Tuesday, 15h April 2014