Sure, it's a grand mansion, but where are the dog beds?
Looking down on what was once a grand ballroom.
A circle drive at the rear, big enough to accommodate horse-drawn carriages.
Looking up at the "castle" ruins from the gorge beneath, near the springs.
The sign said "no swimming"...it said nothing about wading!
The native karst limestone gave rise to many interesting features such as sinkholes, a natural bridge...
...and this interesting balanced rock formation.
We all loved the caves. You weren't allowed to go in, but we didn't have to in order to appreciate the refreshing current of 55-degree air wafting out.
Air conditioning!
You might appreciate a cool cave, too, if you were doing all this hiking in this kind of weather! Take a minute and look at that thermometer...which was in the shade, by the way! We took a bunch of water, and let me tell you, not a drop was wasted. Alfie was the only one to have his own water bottle, though, lucky dog! Don't worry, we took regular rest/re-hydration breaks, and no one got heat exhaustion...although, a stop at Sonic afterward sure felt good!
Alfie was a bit of a show-off, as usual. Tim had climbed up a couple of big boulders and was standing at the top...I was on the middle one and could see Alfie on the ground below, wanting to get up. I was thinking of giving him a boost, or showing him that he could follow Tim by using the smaller boulders to climb up on the big one. Nothing doing! In one giant spring, Alfie had gone from the ground below, to the top boulder with Tim.
Here's how it's done, folks!
Well, hello up there...! I guess Alfie has superpowers.
Take time to enjoy the journey...and all the smells along the way!