Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023)

 

If You Could Read My Mind

If you could read my mind, love

What a tale my thoughts could tell

Just like an old time movie

'Bout a ghost from a wishing well

In a castle dark or a fortress strong

With chains upon my feet

You know that ghost is me

And I will never be set free

As long as I am a ghost, you can't see

Ghost Stories And Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave is a national park in south-central Kentucky, consisting of the longest cave system known in the world. The Green River runs through the park, with a tributary called the Nolin River feeding into the Green just inside the park.

The cave system has formally been known as the Mammoth–Flint Ridge Cave System since 1972, when a connection was discovered between Mammoth Cave and the even-longer system under Flint Ridge to the north. As of 2022, more than 426 miles passageways had been surveyed,  over 1.5 times longer than second-longest cave system, Mexico's Sac Actun underwater cave.

One of my favorite childhood memories was taking a tour of Mammoth Cave and the guide stopping us in a part of the cave known as the Great Room and then extinguishing all our light sources. That was my first experience with total darkness, darkness so deep it makes you question any other reality, and the immense impact those moments can have on one's psyche.

The cave, as you can imagine, has also spawned many tales of the supernatural which even taken with a grain of salt, make for great campfire fodder.  

Old Faithful

I'm continuing an informal series of posts about places of interest that I have visited in my life. One of my favorite destinations was Yellowstone Park and one of the most intriguing sites in that park was the Old Faithful geyser. 

Old Faithful is one of the most well-known geysers in the world.  This incredible natural feature has been drawing visitors for more than a century. However, despite its celebrity, there is still plenty most people don’t know about Yellowstone’s most popular geyser.

So here is a brief history of Old Faithful, along with a few little-known facts about this famous landmark for a better understanding the next time you tour Yellowstone.

Old Faithful was named by the Washburn Expedition of 1870, who explored the area that would later be called Yellowstone. Members of the expedition entered the Upper Geyser Basin after traveling down the Firehole River and saw the geyser, which they called Old Faithful because of the regularity with which it erupted.

Geysers like Old Faithful are only formed under specific conditions, making them relatively rare. Magma under the Earth’s surface superheats pockets of underground water, building pressure that eventually pushes the water upwards. Rhyolite, a volcanic rock high in silica content, lines the tunnel through which the water escapes its underground pocket, creating a pipe that can withstand the incredible heat and pressure as the water erupts above ground.