Historic Lost Sea

The lost sea is the world's second largest underground lake, only half an acre smaller than one recently found in Africa. After first stepping through the little lodge entrance, a yellow tunnel took us slightly downhill into the caves. A steep, slippery walk on the wet clay led down to the lake itself. The guide highlighted on some of the rock formations of the cave. He also mentioned the plant life, saying that the only plants, which are few in a cave of course, are around the lights where the artificial light would allow them to grow. The walk down was 1/4 of a mile in the dim light.

Upon arriving at the lake, we all separated and boarded two boats with a glass strip along the middle of the bottom. The water was bright and clear. Massive rainbow trout could be seen swimming through the 55 degree water. The fish, as the guide explained, are not natural to the lake. They had first stocked the lake with 150 fish, but they have to restock it about every 5 years, because the lake has nowhere for the fish to put their eggs and they need running water to reproduce, causing the fish population to decrease over the years.

Under one spot, a drop of water fell down into someone's mouth causing him to quickly spit it out. The guide, however, assured him that the water was 90% pure, with only 10% minerals. This makes for very clean water, so the little bit he may have swallowed would have been alright. Other people were leaked on and the guide said that that it is supposed to be good luck.

The deepest part of the lake is 70ft. deep, even though it didn't seem at all that massive. The rock formations around the lake were fascinating, too. There was a map of Florida that could be seen in a rock face near the ceiling. We also were shown the flat surface where a large portion of rock had broken off. It was the most recent rockfall on the lake.

After our lake tour, we arrived on solid land again. Followoing our guide, we started the 1/2 mile ascent to the cave entrance. The trip back was longer because we took a different route. The walk was much more dusty on this route, except for a short but steep, and slippery climb up a tunnel with low-hanging stalactities. The room we entered had an interesting history that our guide explained to us. It had been a popular place during the prohibition era. There were parties held there, and people could, due to the pressure, drink alcohol without actually feeling the effects of it until climbing closer to the surface. The floor in the room wasn't smooth like the floors of the other rooms. Instead, the floor had numerous indentations, apparently from the hundereds of people who have, at one time, spent hours dancing there. It was truly interesting. Then, we slipped and slid our way back down the slope we had come up, narrowly avoiding the low ceiling.

We were also shown a spot that had once been a wall of the cave. The story goes that a little boy had found a hole in the wall, nearly a hundred years ago, during a dry spell and crawled through it to find himself in an undiscovered lake. No one believed him, but eventually, after several years, the lake was discovered and named by the older man who had been that little boy. He called it the Lost Sea. The tunnel that was created when the wall had been moved was named after the man as well.

Coming out of the caves, we found that we had not only learned a great amount of facts, but we had also gained a lot by the experience. The lake was a truly rare and amazing sight, the history of the caves was almost unbelievable, and the majesty and wonder of the nature was overwhelming.

Lost Sea Photos