Bonnechere Caves

The last time we were at Bonnechere Caves I was about 8 or 9 years old. I don't remember much. Just that it was cool inside and I remember squeezing through a passage way. So I was excited to be going again with my brother, Carsten, and his girlfriend, Penny. 

We left Driftwood Park at about 12:30 and got to the Bonnechere Caves around 2:30, but we had about a half hour stop along the way because we stopped at a nice little restaurant in the town of Cobden.  It was an extremely hot day and my air conditioning wasn't working in the car and my phone started to over heat just sitting on the seat of the car. So we had decided to stop to cool off a bit. 
   The Bonnechere Caves are located in Eganville, Ontario on Fourth Chute Road. This is to the East of Algonquin Park.  

We got there about 10 minutes early so we had time to look around a bit and take pictures at the "Face-In-A-Hole" display of their logo. 

The tour began under a little shelter and featured a talk on fossils.

They had some larger fossils out on display and they brought out some smaller ones and passed them around during the presentation.

After the presentation we headed off, single file, down the trail towards the caves.

As we walked, we went past the river and saw the way the water had carved its way through the stone over the course of millions of years. 

And we saw where the river enters the cave system at multiple points. But none of these entrances were the ones we were entering. 

You could tell where we were going to enter by the large sign above it saying "Bonnechere Caves" 

Inside the caves it was nice and cool. We were grateful for the reprieve from the hot sun we had been driving in for the past couple hours. It is 13 degrees inside the caves all year round; even in the wintertime. 

Although the cave passageways seemed narrow, there was actually enough room for two or three people to stand shoulder to shoulder in most places inside. There is one section that does get fairly narrow and the head room is low. We had the option to go through that section if we wanted to. Those that didn't want to go through the small area stayed behind and waited for the rest of us to return.  the lady in front of me and Penny was just about to go inside that section but at the last second she got claustrophobic and changed her mind and we had to back up a bit to let her get out. 

Above our heads the roof of the cave was oddly shaped and stalactites were forming. It takes about 100 years for a stalactite to grow only one inch. So these stalactites have been forming for hundreds of years. 

During the spring and summer the water is pumped out of this part of the cave system and people are able to walk inside on the walk ways that are set up. For the winter the walkways are disassembled and the water is allowed to flow back into the caves again so that the frost doesn't get in and cause the cave to collapse and create sink holes. It takes 5 days for the caves to fill back up with water and when it does it doesn't go all the way to the roof in most places. 

Once you get into the biggest room in the cave, the tour guide tells you about how the original explorer had been in the cave while the water was still in it and had lost his flashlight. The guide then turns off all the lights in the cave so that you can experience for yourself just how dark it would have been for him with no lights. (She warns you that she is going to do this). You pretty much can't see your hand in front of your face. 

Near the end of the tour you can see where a part of the cave had collapsed many years before the tours ever began. She assured us that the cave was perfectly safe to be in while on the tour. 

Just as we went inside the cave single file, so we went out of the cave single file. 

It was neat to turn around and watch the others come out of the cave behind you. If you didn't know the cave was there it would be like watching them walk out of a wall. 

The tour guide had suggested that once we left the cave we might like to walk up to see the sink hole from the outside of the cave. She said it was only about a 15 minute walk. So we decided to check it out. 

Turns out the sink hole was only about 2 minutes away, and not the 15 minutes that she said it was. Also, the sink hole was not so easy to see through the trees. 

Our last stop was the gift shop. Inside were T-shirts, ice-cream and drinks. You could also look at displays of fossils, including the largest one they ever found at the caves. There were also photos on the wall of 3 different weddings that have taken place inside the caves over the years. 

With souvenirs in hand, we headed to our cars and started off for our next destination. We were going to go camping at Lake St. Peter Provincial Park.