Side Trip to Ruby Falls

Decided to take a little side trip on the way back to Florida. Thought it seemed like a good idea to stop at Ruby Falls for some pix and fresh air for Garbo. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Ruby Falls was inside a cave! To top it off—no dogs were allowed! Ruby Falls is the largest underground waterfalls ever found in the US.

The natural carvings inside the cave were actually more impressive than the falls itself.

This was on one of the side walls. It is a little over a half a mile walk inside the cave to reach the falls. The pathway varies in size—sometimes very narrow, or things hanging overhead.

There are little lights shining on key items for you to view. Then as you get closer to the falls, the guide shines a flashlight—the area at the falls is kept dark. For viewing, there are different colored spotlights shining from under the falls. The lights are kept on for 7-8 minutes and then you are back in total darkness—except for the guy’s flashlight. ??

The lights change color every few minutes—purple, red, green, blue. I would have preferred natural lighting.

When the lights went off, I blindly took this shot of the falls. This is just light from my flash. At least you can see the natural color of the rock. I managed to get a few good “blind” shots.

On the way out, I hung back from the pack and tried to find pieces that weren’t on display with artificial light.

Every so often, there would be little pools of water that were just a few inches deep.

This is part of a side wall. It is the original size of the path when Ruby Falls was discovered. Not a very big space—a lot of crawling involved!