World’s Largest Ice Caves

by Neil Woodburn on

Ice caves are very different from normal caves. They have a strange feeling about them, as though they are not from this planet, and one has just temporarily stepped into their world when spelunking their depths.

There are many ice caves throughout the world, but the Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves in Austria are some of the largest known to man. They are located within the Tennengebirge Mountains near Salzburg and stretch for a remarkable 40 kilometers. Only a portion of the labyrinth is open to tourists but it’s enough to get a taste of what the remaining network is like: a truly mesmerizing palate of Mother Nature’s handicraft.

For a photographic journey through these amazing caves, click on the link below and delve into the icy realms of Eisriesenwelt–the World of Ice Giants.

Mail A Postcard from Underground: Carlsbad Caverns

by Jamie Rhein on

Willy ‘s post on underwater mailboxes reminded me of my own experience mailing postcards at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. At the end of the tour, before you head up the elevator to the surface, you can buy a postcard, write a “Wish you were here missive,” affix a postage stamp and drop it in a U.S. mailbox. There’s an ink pad and message stamp so you can add, “Mailed at 750 feet underground.”

Since Carlsbad is a wet cave, I seem to remember a certain dampness about this endeavor. Mailing a postcard isn’t the only thing you can do underground at Carlsbad. There’s a restaurant/snack bar as well.

Mailing a postcard and eating lunch underground aren’t really the reasons to head here; the caverns are enough. In the summer, if you stick around until dusk, you can watch the hundreds of Mexican free-tailed bats swarm out of the cave’s entrance. These bats are what tipped off, cowboy Jim White in 1901 that there was something unusual in the distance. He thought he was seeing smoke.

For someone else’s account of mailing postcards, check out Carlsbad Caverns National Park on Tour of America Airstream Life’s Web site.

Photo of the Day (4/19/06)

by Karen Walrond on

I
love caves — there are several on an island just offshore of my homeland of Trinidad — so I couldn’t resist posting
this one of the Skocjan Caves in Slovenia.  Besides, the photographer, trentstrohm, says the shot was taken illegally, since photography
isn’t allowed in the caves.  For that alone he deserves to have this be the photo of the day, don’t you think?

If you’d like one of your travel photos to be featured in our Image of the Day, be sure to visit our Flickr Pool, and upload your best shots there.  Every day we’ll
pick one to be featured here on Gadling.  Thanks!