Caves and springs
Karst destinations in the USA
Karst is limestone, or marble, that water has taken apart: caves, sinkholes, and springs that start a river in one boil.
Mammoth Cave is the long system under a Kentucky sinkhole plain. Carlsbad is a Permian reef opened into the Big Room. Wind Cave and Jewel Cave are the Black Hills pair, boxwork and calcite. Florida shows the other face of the same rock: Devil's Millhopper is a sink you walk into, and Ichetucknee is a spring run. Big Spring in Missouri is the Ozark boil. Oregon Caves is marble under fir, not the limestone of the east.
- Plates
- 8
- States
- 6
States in this chapter
- Florida
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- New Mexico
- Oregon
- South Dakota
Karst chapter
The plates
Plate CCCLXVIIkarst37.2° N · 86.1° W
Mammoth Cave National Park
Green River valley, Edmonson County, Kentucky
A limestone maze the length of a state, under a quiet Kentucky plain.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXVIIIkarst32.2° N · 104.4° W
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Guadalupe Mountains, Eddy County, New Mexico
A reef turned inside out, and a room the size of a city block.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXIXkarst43.6° N · 103.5° W
Wind Cave National Park
southern Black Hills, South Dakota
The densest boxwork on Earth, under a prairie that still has bison.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXkarst42.1° N · 123.4° W
Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve
Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon
A marble cave the fir forest kept.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXIkarst29.7° N · 82.4° W
Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park
near Gainesville, Florida
A round sink the size of a small canyon, with a stair into the shade.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXIIkarst30.0° N · 82.8° W
Ichetucknee Springs State Park
Columbia County, Florida
Limestone water, boiled up blue and then laid out as a river.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXIIIkarst37.0° N · 91.0° W
Big Spring
Ozark National Scenic Riverways, near Van Buren, Missouri
A river that begins all at once, out of a Missouri bluff.
Open plate
Plate CCCLXXIVkarst43.7° N · 103.8° W
Jewel Cave National Monument
Black Hills, near Custer, South Dakota
A crystal cave under the western Black Hills.
Open plate
Asked at the trailhead
Questions already asked
- Where are the great caves in the United States?
- Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the longest known. Carlsbad Caverns, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, and Oregon Caves are the other cave plates here. Florida and Missouri add the springs.
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