Silver Dollar City
Branson, Missouri
March 25 & 26, 2011
Page Eight







Marvel Cave's entrance is at the top of what's known as the Cathedral Room that's so big that five hot air balloons flew around in it back in 1994 setting a worlds record for underground aviation. 



It is one massive room.  You could build one heck of a coaster in here.  It's actually one of the largest cave entrances in North America.  The ceiling is two hundred and four feet high and looking out into the room from the top of the tower kicked my fear of heights into high gear.  It's kind of strange suffering of acrophobia underground.  The first tourists who ventured into this cave descended on a wooden ladder before sliding down the rubble hill on a leather matt to start the tour.  Of course they had to climb all the way back up at the end.



You get up close and personal with the cave as you have to squeeze through a few narrow spots (don't worry if you can fit through the entrance to the line for the cave you can fit through the tour) as you descend over five hundred feet beneath the surface.



A pet peeve of mine is most commercial caves use colored lights on their tours.  My beef with that is that the rock's beautiful enough as it is.  Just light it so that people can see the natural beauty.  Thankfully Marvel Cave only uses colored lights in one place on the tour and that's a fifty foot waterfall that looks breathtaking all lit up.



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Paul B. Drabek