By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Carter Caves State Resort Park in Carter County Kentucky is an excellent example of the natural resources and beauty Kentucky has to offer. Visitors come from around the state, the country, and even the world to experience cave tours and soak up the scenery. In the spirit of all things nature, on Saturday Carter Caves launched their Junior Naturalist Program.
“National Parks have their Junior Ranger Programs,” Nate Shelton said. “So, we decided to have a Junior Naturalist Program.”
Shelton explained that in general a naturalist is someone who interprets for nature itself.
“It encompasses the entirety of outside,” Shelton said. “Geology, ecology, biology, hydrology, basically all of it.”
Junior Naturalists are given workbooks, with each page representing a different number of points based upon your age, Shelton said. All the points gathered work toward earning a Junior Naturalist patch. The workbooks are ten dollars each, but most of the activities the park offers are free. The schedule of events is available every Sunday on the park’s Facebook page.
“We sort of put this all together here at the park,” Rachael McClurg said. “It was all put together by us, and it ties in a lot of the programming we’ve already done here.”
The workbook, she said, is where you can put together all the various stickers you get for activities like going on cave tours.
“It’s kind of like a little guidebook for everything you can do here,” she said. “It isn’t just about the caves.”
“Working here we realized that we have a lot of people from all over the country and from other countries as well,” Shelton said.
But, he continued, sometimes the surprising thing to them is that people who actually live in the area take for granted all that the park and region has to offer.
“So, what we are hoping is that this will be a reach out to the youth of our community to get involved,” he said.
“We have also been doing things with the Olive Hill Library Summer Reading Program to raise awareness,” McClurg said. “We have been going out every week, and hopefully we will be heading out to Grayson soon.”
“We are trying to get as much youth involvement as we possibly can,” Shelton added. “And hopefully there will be an entirely new generation to preserve and enjoy the park.”
Carter Caves has a long list of things to enjoy this summer. The Natural Bridge Rappelling Adventure also happened on Saturday, where participants could rappel down through the opening at the top of the natural bridge for ten dollars a drop – an opportunity that will be returning on July 20. Also in July, from July 22 – 27, visitors will be able to enjoy Pioneer Life complete with tomahawk throwing, black powder rifle demonstrations, pioneer games, and so much more.
On August 10, the popular Crawlathon returns where visitors can explore caves through tight passages, water, mud, and dust in a true up close experience of Cascade Cave, the Bat Cave, and Tarklin Cave. On September 7 – 8 the Fraley Festival celebrates traditional music of the region, and more Cave Adventures happen on September 21. And in October there is Cascade After Hours, where visitors can tour through Cascade Cave after hours and enjoy a series of legends from the area.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
